State v. Powell

Defendant assigns as error that the judgment of the court imposed cruel and ununsual punishment upon defendant. G.S. 14-87, under which defendant was charged and convicted, provides for a sentence of up to thirty years. The sentence imposed upon defendant is well within this limit. Since the year 1838 the Supreme Court of North Carolina has held in an unbroken line of decisions that punishment not exceeding the statutory limit cannot be considered cruel and unusual in the constitutional sense. State v. Manuel, 20 N.C. 144; State v. Pettie, 80 N.C. 367; State v. Farrington, 141 N.C. 844, 53…