State v. Crawford

WYNN, Judge.

Under N.C.G.S. § 14-34.7, an assault upon a law enforcement officer inflicting serious bodily injury constitutes a felony. Defendant contends that because N.C.G.S. § 14-33(c) makes an assault inflicting serious injury a misdemeanor, the indictment in this case charging him with inflicting serious injury (rather than serious bodily injury') on a law enforcement officer was fatally defective. Because our Supreme Court recognizes, a “manifest purpose” exception to the rule of lenity, we are constrained to hold that even if the language of this statute is ambiguous, the “manifest…