(Download) "North Carolina V. Holmes" by Court of Appeals of North Carolina # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: North Carolina V. Holmes
- Author : Court of Appeals of North Carolina
- Release Date : January 15, 1990
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 58 KB
Description
[1] Defendant Penn first assigns error to the trial court's admission into evidence of a privileged confidential communication between him and his wife in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 8-57(c). He argues this violation was reversible error. We agree. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 8-57(c) provides that in criminal cases, "[n]o husband or wife shall be compellable in any event to disclose any confidential communication made by one to the other during their marriage." The North Carolina Supreme Court has held that "spouses shall be incompetent to testify against one another in a criminal proceeding . . . if the substance of the testimony concerns a 'confidential communication' between the marriage partners made during the duration of their marriage." State v. Freeman, 302 N.C. 591, 596, 276 S.E.2d 450, 453 (1981). This rule was recently reiterated: "[W]e have said that a spouse's testimony is . . . incompetent if the substance of the testimony concerns a confidential communication." State v. Britt, 320 N.C. 705, 709 n.2, 360 S.E.2d 660, 662 (1987). The privilege rendering a spouse incompetent to testify about the