State v. Goff

139 S.E.2d 695, 263 N.C. 515, 1965 N.C. LEXIS 1320
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 15, 1965
Docket86
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 139 S.E.2d 695 (State v. Goff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Goff, 139 S.E.2d 695, 263 N.C. 515, 1965 N.C. LEXIS 1320 (N.C. 1965).

Opinion

SHARP, J.

The petition for certiorari is granted and decision rendered as hereinafter stated. When, in 1963, two years after defendant was tried in August 1961, Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 9 L. Ed. 2d 799, 83 S. Ct. 792, 93 A.L.R. 2d 733, overruled Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455, 86 L. Ed. 1595, 62 S. Ct. 1252 (which, decided in 1942, reaffirmed the original and ancient rule that the Sixth Amendment of the national Constitution applied only to trials in the federal courts), defendant-petitioner became entitled ex post facto to have had an attorney at his trial in 1961. State v. Johnson, ante, 479, 139 S.E. 2d 692. He was entitled, also, to counsel at his post-conviction hearing before Parker, J., in June 1962. G.S. 15-219; Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 100 L. Ed. 891, 76 S. Ct. 585, 55 A.L.R. 2d 1055, rehearing den. 351 U.S. 958, 100 L. Ed. 1480, 76 S. Ct. 844. At the trial, Goff did not request counsel; at the post-conviction hearing, he did. Where, however, *517 the assistance of counsel is a constitutional requisite, the right to have it .does not depend upon a request. Carnley v. Cochran, 369 U.S. 506, 8 L. Ed. 2d 70, 82 S. Ct. 884; State v. Roux, ante, 149, 139 S.E. 2d 189.

The orders of Parker, J., and Burgwyn, E. J., in the post-conviction proceedings are reversed, and this cause is remanded to the Superior Court of Pitt County with directions to enter an order vacating the judgment and commitment in Case No. 7752 and instructing the solicitor to proceed with reasonable promptness to try defendant-petitioner de novo upon the bill of indictment returned at the August 1961 Term, unless the solicitor should otherwise dispose of the case in some manner consistent with the obligation of his office. State v. Johnson, supra; Bottoms v. State, 262 N.C. 483, 137 S.E. 2d 817.

Reversed and remanded.

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Related

State v. Mills
170 S.E.2d 189 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1969)
State v. Thorpe
164 S.E.2d 171 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1968)
State v. Merritt
142 S.E.2d 687 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1965)
State v. Weaver
142 S.E.2d 633 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
139 S.E.2d 695, 263 N.C. 515, 1965 N.C. LEXIS 1320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-goff-nc-1965.