## Facts

- A. B. Rhodes was criminally prosecuted for assault and battery against his wife, Elizabeth Rhodes.
- A jury returned a special verdict finding Rhodes struck his wife “three licks” with a switch about the size of his finger and smaller than a man’s thumb.
- The verdict noted no provocation other than unspecified words spoken by the wife and not recalled by the witness.
- The trial court ruled Rhodes was “not guilty in law,” reasoning he could whip his wife with a switch no larger than his thumb.
- The State appealed from that judgment.

## Issues

1. Whether a husband’s “moderate correction” of his wife, as found by the special verdict, constitutes an indictable assault and battery.
2. When, if ever, criminal courts should intervene in intra-marital physical discipline absent serious harm.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of North Carolina affirmed the judgment for the defendant.
- The court stated state law did not recognize a husband’s legal right to whip his wife.
- The court nevertheless held criminal courts would not punish “moderate correction” within marriage unless permanent or malicious injury was inflicted or threatened, or the wife’s condition was intolerable.
- The court rejected a bright-line instrument-based rule and treated the governing measure as the effect of the act rather than the size of the switch.
- On the facts found, the conduct did not meet the threshold for an indictable battery.

## Legal Principles

- Domestic relations are generally subject to law, but courts may decline to adjudicate minor, non-serious domestic conflicts to avoid harms associated with public criminal proceedings.
- Criminal intervention into marital violence was limited to cases involving permanent injury, malicious injury (inflicted or threatened), or an intolerable condition.
- In assessing criminality of domestic chastisement, the material inquiry is the injury or effect produced, not the method or instrument used.
- Prior North Carolina decisions supported treating slight domestic batteries as non-indictable absent excess of violence or permanent harm, while permitting punishment for gross abuse of authority in analogous household-like relations.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed an acquittal where a husband struck his wife three times with a small switch, holding that, although no formal right to whip a wife existed, criminal punishment would not be imposed for what the court characterized as moderate correction absent permanent or malicious injury or an intolerable condition.


State v. Rhodes, 61 N.C. 453 (N.C. 1868)