State v. . Oakley
Supreme Court of North Carolina
False pretence, tried before Bynum, J., at Spring Term, 1888, of the Superior Court of Guilford. The defendant is indicted for obtaining money by false pretence in violation of the statute (The Code, § 1625). He pleaded not guilty, and on the trial the jury rendered a special verdict, finding facts, but omitting to find that he had the intent either to defraud or not to defraud. The Court held that upon the facts found, he was not guilty.
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False pretence, tried before Bynum, J., at Spring Term, 1888, of the Superior Court of Guilford. The defendant is indicted for obtaining money by false pretence in violation of the statute (The Code, § 1625). He pleaded not guilty, and on the trial the jury rendered a special verdict, finding facts, but omitting to find that he had the intent either to defraud or not to defraud. The Court held that upon the facts found, he was not guilty. That verdict was entered, and thereupon there was judgment for him, from which the Solicitor for the State — he having excepted — appealed to this Court.
1Opinion of the CourtMerrimoN, J.
The intent to defraud is an essential element of the offence charged in the indictment, and as it was not found by the special verdict that the defendant had, or had not, such intent in connection with the material facts •charged, the Court could not properly decide upon the facts found that he was guilty or not guilty, and hence it erroneously directed the verdict of not guilty to be entered. The special verdict was void, because the jury failed to find by it a material fact, and the Court should have quashed it, and directed a new trial, or it might, before the jury was discharged, have…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- State v. . BraySupreme Court of North Carolina · 1883
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- State v. . McCloudSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1909
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