Opinion ID: 1422450
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: arguments of defendants barnes and blakney

Text: In another assignment of error, defendants Barnes and Blakney contend that the trial court committed reversible constitutional error in overruling Barnes' objections to closing arguments made by the State during the capital sentencing proceeding. We note that Barnes and Blakney made no constitutional claims at trial concerning the State's closing arguments and will not be heard on any constitutional grounds now. N.C.R.App.P. 10(b)(1); see, e.g., State v. Benson, 323 N.C. 318, 321-22, 372 S.E.2d 517, 519 (1988). A defendant is not entitled to a new trial because of an improper prosecutorial comment, properly objected to, unless the comment amounted to prejudicial error. State v. Ingle, 336 N.C. 617, 650-51, 445 S.E.2d 880, 898 (1994), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 1366, 131 L.Ed.2d 222 (1995). Barnes first contends that the prosecutor acted with gross impropriety during closing argument by lying on the floor to demonstrate a previous crime allegedly committed by Barnes. At the sentencing proceeding, the State introduced evidence tending to show that Barnes had committed an attempted robbery of a sixteen-year-old girl, Terry Hull. During her closing argument, assistant district attorney Symons, while lying on the floor, described Barnes' encounter with Ms. Hull: And they went skipping up the hill, hand in hand, these two sisters, and Mr. Barnes grabbed Terry [Hull] from behind, dragged her across the street with little sister Melissa still holding her hand, and he flung her down on the ground. And they fought and she screamed for help and he pinned her down with his knees on her arms, and he put his hands around her neck like this and choked her. Terry [Hull] told you that her breath was cut off. Terry [Hull] told you her eyes started to go. Her vision went; she couldn't see. She told you her head was red and felt like it was going to explode. And she told you he would have killed me if that man didn't pull him off. It's a felony involving the use of violence. [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Objection to Ms. Symons[`] argument from the floor. THE COURT: Overruled. Barnes maintains that Ms. Symons' act of lying on the floor served only to inflame the jury and detract jurors from their duty to reasonably weigh the sentencing evidence. We disagree. Nothing in the record suggests that Ms. Symons did anything other than lie on the floor and describe Barnes' attack on Terry Hull. Defendant has failed to show why or how this was an improperly prejudicial theatrical, inflammatory demonstration. We therefore conclude that the act did not amount to prejudicial error. Barnes and Blakney next argue that the prosecutor erroneously disregarded instructions by the trial court and argued to the jurors that they could use the same evidence to support the existence of more than one aggravating circumstance. Specifically, over Barnes' objection, the prosecutor encouraged the jury to consider Mr. Tutterow's psychological torture, caused by observing Mrs. Tutterow's death, in determining the existence of the heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(9) (1988) (amended 1994). The prosecutor encouraged the jury later in her argument to use the same evidence, the death of Mrs. Tutterow, to find the existence of the course of conduct aggravating circumstance, N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(11). Double-counting occurs when two aggravating circumstances are based on the same evidence. State v. Howell, 335 N.C. 457, 474-75, 439 S.E.2d 116, 126 (1994). Nonetheless, some overlap in the evidence is permissible; aggravating circumstances are not redundant unless there is a complete overlap of evidence supporting them. State v. Moseley, 338 N.C. 1, 54, 449 S.E.2d 412, 444 (1994), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 1815, 131 L.Ed.2d 738 (1995). Barnes and Blakney concede that the trial court correctly instructed the jury not to find two or more aggravating circumstances from the same evidence. We fail to see any impropriety. The argument did not conflict with any of the trial court's instructions and did not encourage the jury to ignore the instruction about not using the same evidence for finding two or more aggravating circumstances. Finally, Barnes and Blakney contend that the prosecutor misstated the law on mitigating circumstances. The prosecutor argued to the jury as follows: [R]ecall that each defendant has a separate set of mitigating circumstances and they have to prove them to you. The State does not have to disprove the mitigating circumstances. The defendant has to prove their existence. Now, here is the definition of mitigating circumstances. And each time you consider a mitigating circumstance say to yourself, does it reduce the moral culpability of the killing? Because you must find that to find that a circumstance has mitigating value. [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Objection. THE COURT: Overruled. While the jury must accord mitigating value to a statutory mitigating circumstance found by it, the jury may deem a nonstatutory mitigating circumstance found by it to be without mitigating value. Buckner, 342 N.C. at 235, 464 S.E.2d at 435. Barnes maintains that the prosecutor's argument erroneously informed jurors that it was up to them to decide whether every mitigating circumstance, both statutory and nonstatutory, carried mitigating value. Prosecutorial arguments are not examined in an isolated vacuum on appeal but must be considered in the context in which they were made. Ingle, 336 N.C. at 646, 445 S.E.2d at 895. Immediately after the trial court overruled Barnes' objection, the prosecutor went on to differentiate between statutory and nonstatutory mitigators. She stated that the jurors had to give some mitigating value to any statutory mitigating circumstance which they found to exist. Therefore, the argument was correct, and defendant was not prejudiced. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the arguments of the prosecutor during the capital sentencing proceeding in this case did not amount to prejudicial error. Accordingly, these assignments of error are overruled.