State v. Hoyle

HEDRICK, Judge.

All of the assignments of error on this appeal relate to the trial judge’s charge to the jury.

Defendant first argues that the court’s instructions deprived her of the benefit of the defense of imperfect self-defense. She contends that the trial judge’s charge contained the same error found in State v. Norris, 303 N.C. 526, 279 S.E. 2d 570 (1981), where the expression “without justification or excuse” was used as the equivalent of self-defense throughout the charge and thus seemingly required the jury to find the existence of all four elements of perfect self-defense before the…