State v. . Rice

The appeal may be made to turn on whether in a homicide case, where there is plea and evidence of self-defense, it is competent for the defendant’s wife to testify to a threat made by the deceased against her husband which she communicated to the defendant before the killing.

It is conceded that the question should be answered in the affirmative. C. S., 1802; S. v. Baldwin, 155 N. C., 496, 71 S. E., 212. There .was error in excluding the proffered testimony of the defendant’s wife. S. v. Jones, 89 N. C., 559. See S. v. Cotton, 218 N. C., 577, 12 S. E. (2d), 246.

It is the position of the State,…