Title: James v. State

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

723 So. 2d 786 (1998)
Ex parte State of Alabama.
(Re Joe Nathan JAMES, Jr.
v.
STATE).
1971709.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
October 30, 1998.
Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and A. Vernon Barnett IV, asst. atty. gen., for petitioner.
Bryan Stevenson and Drew Colfax of Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, Montgomery, for respondent.
KENNEDY, Justice.
The petition for the writ of certiorari is denied.
In denying the petition for the writ of certiorari, this Court does not wish to be understood as approving the Court of Criminal Appeals' holding that it was not reversible error for the trial court to instruct the jury before the parties made their closing arguments. Rule 21.1, Ala.R.Crim.P., provides that "the court shall instruct the jury after the arguments are completed." Additionally, § 13A-5-46(d), Ala. Code 1975, regarding the sentencing phase of death penalty cases:
Giving jury charges after the parties have given their closing arguments allows the trial court the opportunity to be heard last. In this present case, the last thing the jurors heard before beginning their deliberations was the prosecutor stating:
By mandating that the trial court instruct the jury after the closing arguments have been completed, the rule and the statute focus the jurors on the law and the jurors' responsibilities and allows the jurors a time to recover from the purely emotional aspects of the lawyers' arguments before beginning deliberations.
WRIT DENIED.
HOOPER, C.J., and ALMON, SHORES, HOUSTON, COOK, and LYONS, JJ., concur.
SEE, J., concurs in the result.