Case Name: Whitney Glenn ISHEE v. STATE of Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 2001-10-25
Citations: 799 So. 2d 70
Docket Number: No. 1998-CT-01123-SCT
Parties: Whitney Glenn ISHEE v. STATE of Mississippi.
Judges: PITTMAN, C.J., WALLER, COBB, DIAZ and EASLEY, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 799
Pages: 70–82

Head Matter:
Whitney Glenn ISHEE v. STATE of Mississippi.
No. 1998-CT-01123-SCT.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
Oct. 25, 2001.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 21, 2001.
Edmund J. Phillips, Jr., Newton, for Appellant.
Office of the Attorney General by Charles W. Maris, Jr., for Appellee.

Opinion:
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
SMITH, Justice,
for the Court:
¶ 1. Whitney Glenn Ishee was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Neshoba County for attempted sexual battery on a minor and was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment. This conviction and .sentence were affirmed by the Court of Appeals. This Court granted Ishee's petition for writ of certiorari. We find no reversible error in the trial below. Thus, the judgments of the trial court and the Court of Appeals are affirmed.
FACTS
¶ 2. The facts in this case are not in dispute. On April 17, 1998, a mother and her nine-year-old son, C.G., were at a Wal-Mart store in Philadelphia, Mississippi. While in the check-out line, the mother sent C.G. back to get a box of cereal. Once on the cereal aisle, C.G. encountered Ishee. It was there that Ishee approached C.G. and asked, in vernacular terms, to perform fellatio on C.G. The child did not understand, and thus, Ishee repeated his request while gesturing to his own genitals. C.G. refused, grabbed a box of cereal, and returned to the check-out line. Once there, he told his mother what had occurred, and the police were called in. Ishee was apprehended while still in the store. There was some testimony at trial that Ishee had told an officer that he planned to take C.G. to the store's bathroom to perform the act.
¶ 3. Ishee was arrested and indicted on a charge of attempted sexual battery. Following trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict, and the trial judge sentenced Ish-ee to serve thirty years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. A divided Court of Appeals affirmed. Ishee v. State, No.1998-KA-01123-COA (Miss.Ct.App.2000).
ANALYSIS
¶ 4. Ishee raises three issues on appeal. First, he alleges that the Court of Appeals erred in upholding the trial court's overruling his demurrer to the indictment. Second, Ishee alleges error in the Court of Appeals' affirming of the trial judge's denial of his motion for a directed verdict and a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Third, he cites reversible error in the content of the prosecution's closing statement. The first two issues raised by Ishee raise essentially the same claim, which is that the facts at trial do not establish the necessary elements to constitute attempted sexual battery. Thus, we consider these issues together. Further, we additionally consider the issue of a defect within the indictment, which concerns the fact that the statute cited in the indictment is not the appropriate statute.
I. WHETHER AN OVERT ACT SUFFICIENT TO CONSTITUTE ATTEMPTED SEXUAL BATTERY WAS PROVEN?
¶ 5. Ishee contends that the indictment fails to allege that he attempted to commit sexual battery. The indictment alleges that Ishee attempted to commit sexual battery by "asking the said C.G. to engage in fellatio and pointing to his penis...." He also contends that the statutory overt act must be alleged in the indictment as an essential element of the crime. This Court has stated that, "[i]n prosecution for an attempt to commit an offense, . it is necessary to charge and prove some overt act done toward commission of offense; an 'overt act' being one which manifests intention to commit crime." Dill v. State, 149 Miss. 167, 170, 115 So. 203 (1928). The indictment contains no allegation of acts other than Ishee asking the boy to engage in fellatio and pointing to his penis. Ishee contends that this is not an overt act sufficient to constitute an element of the offense. We disagree.
¶ 6. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-95 (2000), defines sexual battery. It states that "[a] person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with: . (d) [a] child under the age of fourteen (14) years of age, if the person is twenty-four (24) or more months older than the child." Id. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-97 (2000), includes fellatio in its definition of sexual penetration. An attempt consists of three elements: "(1) an intent to commit a particular crime; (2) a direct ineffectual act done toward its commission; and (3) the failure to consummate its commission." Bucklew v. State, 206 So.2d 200, 202 (Miss.1968).
¶ 7. It is clear from the facts below that the first and third elements of attempt are met. It is the second element that is the bone of contention between Ishee and the State. As explained by this Court in Bucklew, what is required is an act which goes beyond mere preparation and which is suited for the intended purpose-here, sexual penetration. Id. at 202-OS. As we clearly stated in Bucklew, the act "may be any act in the series of acts which would ordinarily result in the commission of the crime, and need not be the last or final step in the sequence." Id. In a further attempt to define what constitutes an overt act, we stated:
[A]n attempt is a direct movement toward the commission of the crime after the preparations have been made; the defendant's act must be a direct, unequivocal act toward the commission of the intended crime; that his acts must have progressed to the extent of giving him power to commit the offense and nothing but an interruption prevented the commission of the offense; that the defendant's act must reach far enough toward the accomplishment of his intention to commit the offense to amount to a commencement of the consummation or to be a step in the direct movement toward its commission; and that some appreciable fragment of the crime must be committed so that the crime would be completed if the defendant were not interrupted.
Id. at 202-03 (citations omitted).
¶ 8. It is clear that "[wjhenever the design of a person to commit crime is clearly shown, slight acts done in furtherance of this design constitute an 'attempt'." Id. at 203 (quoting Williams v. State, 209 Miss. 902, 48 So.2d 598 (1950)). Ishee was charged with attempted sexual battery. According to the statutory definition of this crime, the State had to prove that Ishee attempted to sexually penetrate C.G., but either failed to or was prevented from doing so. From the facts below, there was sufficient evidence that Ishee's intent was to take C.G. to the Wal-Mart bathroom and perform fellatio on him. Toward this goal, Ishee wandered around Wal-Mart, found a young boy alone, approached him, asked him if he could perform fellatio on him, and gestured to his own genitals to explain his request. Ish-ee's actions went beyond mere preparation to where he clearly began to commit the crime. The only thing that halted the commission of this crime was the boy's refusal, coupled with his leaving Ishee's presence. It would be a stretch of the imagination to accept Ishee's .argument that because he did not grab C.G. or attempt to detain him that no overt act occurred.
¶ 9. Ishee further argues that our holding in West v. State, 437 So.2d 1212 (Miss.1983), supports a claim that he abandoned any attempt to commit the crime by allowing C.G.'s refusal to end the encounter. We stated in West that "[t]he gravamen of this offense of attempt is that the accused have done an overt act toward sexual penetration 'and be prevented from its commission.' " Id. at 1214 (quoting State v. Lindsey, 202 Miss. 896, 899, 32 So.2d 876, 877 (1947)). We further stated that such prevention must result from "extraneous causes." Id. In West, the defendant's failure to penetrate "was not the product of his victim's admittedly ineffective resistance or the intervention of extraneous causes." Id. Here, the crime involved was perpetuated on a child. And, as a general rule, children react differently than adults. Ishee's request constituted an overt action toward the attempted sexual penetration of a willing child. His attempt was thwarted by the extraneous cause of the boy's refusal.
¶ 10. Based on the evidence presented at trial, a sufficient overt act occurred to justify Ishee's conviction for attempted sexual battery.
II. WHETHER THE "SEND A MESSAGE" ARGUMENT USED BY THE PROSECUTION IN ITS CLOSING STATEMENT CONSTITUTES REVERSIBLE ERROR?
¶ 11. Ishee contends that the prosecutor was guilty of misconduct in his closing argument. In closing, the prosecutor, stated:
The defense asked you to think about what kind of message you would be sending if you find — what kind of terrible message you would be sending if you find the Defendant guilty. Think about this: What if you find him not guilty? What message are you sending then? You are saying these sexual predators can go to Wal-Mart and cruise for nine year olds all day long and ask them to perform perverted sexual acts until one of them finally says yes, and then it's a crime.
And later, while continuing with his closing argument, the prosecutor said:
The way to stop it is to tell the Glenn Ishees of the world you can't go to a public place like that and wait for a young child to be by himself and then swoop down on him and try to commit perverse sexual acts, because if you do, you are going to have to answer to that.
One way or the other, we are going to send a message with this verdict. I hope it's a message that we all can live with in Philadelphia and feel like our kids are safe to go to stores in Philadelphia.
¶ 12. It is true that this Court has repeatedly cautioned prosecutors against using the "send a message argument." Evans v. State, 725 So.2d 613, 675 (Miss.1997); Chase v. State, 699 So.2d 521, 537 (Miss.1997); Hunter v. State, 684 So.2d 625, 637 (Miss.1996); Williams v. State, 522 So.2d 201, 209 (Miss.1988). In fact, in Williams we stated:
The jurors are representatives of the community in one sense, but they are not to vote in a representative capacity. Each juror is to apply the law to the evidence and vote accordingly. The issue which each juror must resolve is not whether or not he or she wishes to "send a message" but whether or not he or she believes that the evidence showed the defendant to be guilty of the crime charged. The jury is an arm of the State but it is not an arm of the prosecution. The State includes both the prosecution and the accused. The function of the jury is to weigh the evidence and determine the facts. When the prosecution wishes to send a message they should employ Western Union. Mississippi jurors are not messenger boys.
Id. at 209.
¶ 13. However, despite these admonitions we have specifically held that we would not adopt a per se reversible error rule on this issue. Payton v. State, 785 So.2d 267, 271 (Miss.1999). Here, again we find the argument to be improper, but it does not constitute reversible error for two reasons. First, Ishee did not object to the argument in the trial below. This Court has no original jurisdiction, and "it can only try questions that have been tried and passed upon by the court from which the appeal is taken." Patrick v. State, 754 So.2d 1194, 1196 (Miss.2000) (citing Leverett v. State, 197 So.2d 889, 890 (Miss.1967)). Further, we do not find that the prosecutor's arguments rise to the level of impropriety that would warrant reversal as plain error.
¶ 14. Second, we believe that Ishee's argument is without merit. It is important when considering this type of issue that we "not only weigh the impact of the prosecutor's remark, but also take into account defense counsel's opening salvo." Edwards v. State, 737 So.2d 275, 299 (Miss.1999) (citing Williams, 522 So.2d at 209). In his own closing argument, Ishee's attorney stated:
That's the same thing we have got here. We have got Instruction S-3, which says, the last sentence from the bottom, "Whether an act has been passed — has passed beyond the state of preparation and constitutes an attempt, is a question of degree," and if you say that Glenn Ishee is guilty of attempted sexual battery, you might as well be saying he should have went [sic] ahead and put one hand on the boy's mouth, grabbed him by the arm, and took [sic] him off to the bathroom, and committed whatever act he wanted to commit. He might as well have gone ahead and done it.
And, the next fellow, the next perverted fellow that has the same thought knows what the jury says the law is, well, then, he will know he has done reached [sic] the point of no return, and he might as well commit the act... .You think about what message this is going to be sending to other Defendants and other people.
¶ 15. Thus, Ishee made his own "send a message" argument. Considering Ishee's own argument and the fact that the prosecutor's "send a message" argument was made following it, there is a rational link between the two. We have noted that "prosecutorial comments which under normal circumstances would constitute error do not when the statements merely reiterate statements of defense counsel." Booker v. State, 511 So.2d 1329, 1332 (Miss.1987) (citations omitted). This is the case here. The prosecutor was merely " 'right[ing] the scale' tipped by defense counsel's comments." Id.; see also Gilliard v. State, 428 So.2d 576, 583-84 (Miss.1983), overruled on other grounds, Willie v. State, 585 So.2d 660, 681 (Miss.1991).
¶ 16. We find that Ishee's argument that the prosecutor's remarks were reversible error fails because it is procedurally barred, but alternatively that it is without merit.
III. WHETHER THE MISCITATION CONTAINED IN THE INDICTMENT RISES TO THE LEVEL OF PLAIN ERROR AND REQUIRES REVERSAL?
¶ 17. The indictment reads, without the formal requirements, that "Whitney Glenn Ishee . did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously attempt to commit sexual battery upon C.G., a male child under the age of fourteen (14) years by asking the said C.G. to engage in fellatio and pointing to his penis, contrary to and in violation of Section 97-3-101, Miss.Code Ann. (1972)." The statute referenced in the indictment sets forth the penalty for sexual battery, but not the elements of the crime. The proper charging statute would have been Section 97-3-95. Here, Ishee filed a demurrer to the indictment, as discussed above, however, he did not discuss this eiTor. As stated earlier, this Court will generally not consider objections not raised below. See Patrick, 754 So.2d at 1196. Further, in this case Ishee has not raised this issue on appeal either. However, "[t]his Court, on occasion when circumstances warranted, has noted the existence of error in trial proceedings affecting substantial rights of the defendants although they were not brought to the attention of the trial court or of this Court." Id. (quoting Grubb v. State, 584 So.2d 786, 789 (Miss.1991)). Thus, we must consider if Ishee's substantial rights were affected by this error.
¶ 18. An indictment serves to alert the defendant of the charge against him. Westmoreland v. State, 246 So.2d 487, 489 (Miss.1971). We have noted that there "ought not to be . insistence upon forms which are purely technical and sur-plusage with indictments." Id. (citations omitted). We have found that when an indictment cited the statute imposing the penalty rather than the statute containing the elements that the reference to the statute "was mere surplusage in the indictment and the appellant could not have been prejudiced by this erroneous reference." White v. State, 169 Miss. 332, 153 So. 387, 389 (1934).
¶ 19. This Court has held that "[i]f an indictment reasonably provides the accused with actual notice and it complies with Rule 2.05 of the Unif.Crim.R.Cir.Ct. Prac., it is sufficient to charge the defendant with the crime." McNeal v. State, 658 So.2d 1345, 1350 (Miss.1995) (citations omitted). Rule 2.05 of the Uniform Criminal Rules of Circuit Court Practice is now Rule 7.06 of the Uniform Circuit and County Court Rules. Rule 7.06 requires that the indictment be "a plain, concise and definite written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense charged and shall fully notify the defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation." URCCC 7.06 It is clear that the indictment charging Ishee fulfilled these requirements. Ishee was certainly on notice regarding what he was charged with. The indictment alerted Ishee that he was charged with attempted sexual battery, and it detailed the acts which the State intended to put on as evidence of Ishee's commission of the crime.
¶ 20. The defect in the indictment is not cause for reversal. It is procedurally barred, as Ishee did not object to it below, nor did he raise it on appeal to this Court. Further, it does not rise to the level of an error affecting Ishee's substantive rights.
CONCLUSION
¶ 21. We find no error below that warrants reversal. First, Ishee's actions toward C.G. were sufficient to constitute an overt act toward the commission of sexual battery. Second, any error in the prosecutor's closing argument was procedurally barred. Further, as it was invited by de fense counsel, the allegation of misconduct is without merit. Third, any technical deficiency in the indictment does not rise to a reversible error in this case. Thus, the trial court's judgment and the Court of Appeals' judgment are affirmed.
¶ 22. JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF APPEALS IS AFFIRMED.
PITTMAN, C.J., WALLER, COBB, DIAZ and EASLEY, JJ., concur.
BANKS, P.J., dissents with separate written opinion joined by McRAE, P.J., and MILLS, J.
MILLS, J., dissents with separate written opinion joined by BANKS and McRAE, P.JJ.