Smith's Criminal Case Compendium
Table of Contents
Evidence
Arrest, Search, and Investigation
Criminal Offenses
Drug Offenses
State v. Clark, 201 N.C. App. 319 (Dec. 8, 2009)
In a case in which the defendant was convicted, among other things, of assault with a deadly weapon on a governmental official, the trial court committed plain error by failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of misdemeanor assault on a government official. Because the trial court did not conclude as matter of law that the weapon was a deadly one, but rather left the issue for the jury to decide, it should have instructed on the lesser included non-deadly weapon offense.