Case Summaries – Supreme Court of North Carolina

This post provides summaries of the opinions of the Supreme Court of North Carolina published on August 16, 2019. (1) The trial court erred when it admitted the defendant’s affidavit of indigency into evidence, violating his right against self-incrimination; (2) The error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Diaz, ___ N.C. ___, ___ S.E.2d ___ (Aug. 16, 2019). (1) On discretionary review of a unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals, ___ N.C. App. ___, 808 S.E.2d 450 (2017), the court affirmed the Court of Appeals’ conclusion that the trial judge erred by admitting the defendant’s affidavit of indigency into evidence over the defendant’s objection to show his age, which was an element of the charged crimes in this abduction of a child and statutory rape case. The trial judge had ruled that the affidavit of indigency was admissible under Rule 902 of the Rules of Evidence as a self-authenticating document, but the Supreme Court concluded that allowing the document into evidence impermissibly compelled the defendant to surrender one constitutional right—his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination—in order to complete the paperwork required for him to assert his Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of counsel as an indigent defendant. (2) The Supreme Court deemed the trial judge’s error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, reversing the Court of Appeals on that issue. Other trial testimony from victim—who knew the defendant sufficiently well to provide a competent opinion on his age—sufficed to prove the defendant’s age to the requisite [...]