Opinion ID: 384598
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: If Mr. Smith would tell me who he is.

Text: 12 Mr. McWilliams (counsel for Smith): Objection: I move for a mistrial. (Emphasis added) 13 After the jury was excused from the courtroom, the court denied Smith's motion for a mistrial, holding that any error could be made harmless by a curative instruction. When the jury returned to the courtroom, the court instructed the jury that the last response by Agent Mazzilli was inappropriate, improper and should not have been given. The court then polled each of the jurors to determine whether they could disregard the last answer of Mazzilli. Each juror responded in the affirmative. 2 14 The government does not contest 3 that the remark made by Agent Mazzilli was an improper comment on appellant Smith's silence in derogation to his Miranda and Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. 4 Accordingly, we turn immediately to whether Mazzilli's remark is harmless. 15 In Chapman v. United States, 547 F.2d 1240 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 908, 97 S.Ct. 1705, 52 L.Ed.2d 393 (1977), this circuit held that the harmless error doctrine is applicable to the type of constitutional violation at issue here. 547 F.2d at 1248. Therefore, we must determine whether the violation in the case at bar was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. The indicia established by this court indicates that without doubt the prejudice suffered by appellant Smith here was almost nil. 16 As in United States v. Sklaroff, 552 F.2d 1156 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1009, 98 S.Ct. 718, 54 L.Ed.2d 751 (1978) and in United States v. Whitaker, 592 F.2d 826 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 950, 100 S.Ct. 422, 62 L.Ed.2d 320 (1979), the prosecution did not elicit the response but instead the improper remark was a spontaneous comment by the witness. Compare United States v. Johnson, 558 F.2d 1225 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Stevens, 538 F.2d 1203 (5th Cir. 1976); and United States v. Impson, 531 F.2d 274 (5th Cir. 1976) (all cases involving an improper comment by a witness prompted by a prosecutor.) 17 In the case at bar, the remark by Agent Mazzilli was the only comment on the defendant's silence. The prosecutor did not focus on or highlight the defendant's silence in his examination of the witnesses or in his closing remarks. United States v. Espinosa-Cerpa, 630 F.2d 328 (5th Cir., 1980); United States v. Sklaroff supra; Chapman v. United States, supra; United States v. Davis, 546 F.2d 583 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 906, 97 S.Ct. 1701, 52 L.Ed.2d 391 (1977). Mazzilli's comment in no way undermined any exculpatory defense offered by appellant Smith, as appellant Smith offered no defense. United States v. Espinosa-Cerpa, 630 F.2d at 333, United States v. Sklaroff, 552 F.2d at 1162. Compare United States v. Impson, supra, (concern that comment on defendant's silence may have been a determining factor in jury disbelieving a plausible defense by defendant); United States v. Johnson, supra, (concern that comment on defendant's silence may have caused the jury to disbelieve defendant's defense of no knowledge she was carrying drugs in her suitcase); United States v. Harp, 536 F.2d 601 (5th Cir. 1976) (comments on defendant's silence that struck at the jugular of the defendant's defense constituted reversible error). 18 Because of the court's curative instruction and the poll of the jurors, and in light of the otherwise overwhelming evidence of guilt deriving from appellant's sale of approximately 1,000 methaqualone pills, we are compelled to conclude that the error was harmless. United States v. Espinosa-Cerpa, 630 F.2d at 333; United States v. Whitaker, 592 F.2d at 831; United States v. Chapman, 547 F.2d at 1249; and United States v. Davis, 546 F.2d at 595. 19 Accordingly, we affirm appellant Smith's conviction. 20 AFFIRMED.