Opinion ID: 1444179
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Appellant's motion for a mistrial

Text: Defense counsel moved for a mistrial at the conclusion of testimony on September 13, 1996. Earlier that day, Sean Whaley, a reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, testified about an article he had written based on an interview with appellant in October 1989. Appellant told Whaley during that interview, As soon as you are sentenced to death you're thinking about it and you have to decide what you're going to do. Whaley read this part of the article during his testimony. Appellant contends that Whaley's article informed the jury that a previous jury had sentenced him to death and thereby lessened the jury's sense of responsibility for determining the appropriateness of the death sentence. Appellant relies upon Caldwell v. Mississippi, 472 U.S. 320, 105 S.Ct. 2633, 86 L.Ed.2d 231 (1985), but acknowledges that he has not located a case directly on point. Denial of a motion for a mistrial is within the sound discretion of the district court, and that ruling will not be reversed absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion. Lane v. State, 110 Nev. 1156, 1163, 881 P.2d 1358, 1363-64 (1994), vacated in part, 114 Nev. 299, 956 P.2d 88 (1998). We conclude that Whaley's testimony about the article did not lessen the jury's sense of responsibility and that the district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant's motion for a mistrial.