Opinion ID: 1782423
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Failure to raise on appeal the question of whether the district attorney's closing argument amounted to an improper comment on the defendant's failure to testify and call witnesses.

Text: ¶ 29. Turner called no witnesses during the guilt phase of the trial. In closing argument, Turner's attorney argued that the case boiled down to the credibility of Stewart. Turner also argued that the State should have called more witnesses, including people who were at the second store during the Curry killing. During his closing argument, the District Attorney responded: We put on 17 witnesses. On one hand the Defense counsel says we shouldn't have put on but one. On the other hand, they say we should have put on more. We put on the witnesses that we thought y'all needed to hear to make your decision. We could have probably put on forty witnesses, but why? We wanted to make sure that you had the facts that you needed to have. And one thing I want to make sure that y'all understand; both sides have the right to subpoena witnesses, and you can bet if there was anything that was inconsistent, they would have put these other witnesses on. They had the right to do that. At that time, the defense objected, asserting that the prosecutor's argument amounted to a comment on the defendant's failure to testify and impinged on the defendant's right to remain silent. The trial judge overruled the objection and instructed the District Attorney to stick to the evidence. Turner claims that the prosecutor's statement was an improper comment on Turner's decision not to testify. Turner maintains that this issue should have been raised on direct appeal and that his attorney on appeal was ineffective for failing to raise that claim. ¶ 30. Turner cites Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965), Griffin v. State, 557 So.2d 542 (Miss.1990), and other cases which hold that a defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination is violated if the prosecutor makes a comment about or alludes to the defendant's failure to testify at trial. This Court has repeatedly held that attorneys on both sides are allowed wide latitude in their closing arguments and that there is an obvious difference between a comment on the defendant's failure to testify and a comment on defendant's failure to put on a credible defense. Underwood v. State, 919 So.2d 931, 939-40 (Miss. 2005) (citing Howell v. State, 860 So.2d 704, 751-52 (Miss.2003)). The prosecutor's comment here was a fair response to the defense's claim that the State failed to call some witnesses who could have been helpful to the jury. As in Underwood, the argument did not specifically mention the defendant or refer to his failure to testify. As the closing argument was not improper, the appellate attorney was not required to raise that issue on appeal. We find that the attorney was not ineffective in failing to raise this issue on direct appeal.