State v. Keen

BRANCH, Chief Justice.

By his sole assignment of error defendant contends the trial court committed prejudicial error in failing to strike certain testimony of Dr. J. D. Danoff. We find merit in this assignment and hold that defendant is entitled to a new trial.

Dr. Danoff, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at East Carolina University School of Medicine, who observed and treated Langley in the Pitt Memorial Hospital for approximately eight days, testified as a witness for the State. It was stipulated that Dr. Danoff was an expert “in the general field of psychiatry with a specialty in…