Opinion ID: 1830839
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 35

Heading: Whether the cumulative effect of the Trial Court's errors denied Appellant a fundamentally fair trial as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

Text: ¶ 199. Hughes contends that the cumulative errors throughout his trial, when considered together, so prejudiced his case as to deny him a fair trial. When the combination of specific errors, while harmless in each instance, accrued to such an extent that a defendant was denied a fair trial, this Court will reverse for cumulative error. Coleman v. State, 697 So.2d 777, 787 (Miss.1997)( citing Jenkins v. State, 607 So.2d 1171, 1183-84 (Miss.1992); Hansen v. State, 592 So.2d 114, 153 (Miss. 1991)). ¶ 200. There were two errors in this trial: the inclusion of the census data for the state of Mississippi as error (Issue VIII, supra ); and, the admitting of Investigator Davis' lay opinion testimony on the knives (Issue IX, supra), both of which were harmless. However, these two assignments are completely independent. Thus, there is no aggregation of harmless error and no cumulative error in this case.