Opinion ID: 603523
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Curative instruction.

Text: 35 After the close of the evidence, the court offered the following curative instruction: 36 During [Hall's cross examination] the Government Counsel asked the defendant if he made certain statements to his wife, and the defendant denied making such statements. The jury is instructed that if no evidence has been shown that such statements were made by the defendant, the jury shall make no such inference that such statements were made simply because the questions were asked, and shall disregard any and all questions asked relating to statements allegedly made to Tammie Hall, the wife of the defendant. 37 The normal presumption is that the jury will follow a curative instruction. Greer v. Miller, 483 U.S. 756, 766 n. 8, 107 S.Ct. 3102, 3109 n. 8, 97 L.Ed.2d 618 (1987). However, this presumption cannot apply when the curative instruction fails by its own terms to address the error. 38 This instruction addresses the erroneous admission of statements violating Barry Hall's privileged marital communications. It completely ignores the other highly prejudicial questions based upon Mrs. Hall's statement: that she had caught Hall using cocaine, that Hall had repeatedly used cocaine inside their house, and that Hall had taken his wife with him to drug deals. Because the instruction failed to address the jury's exposure to prejudicial statements that could not have been introduced into evidence, it failed to cure the error introduced by McAfee's wrongful cross-examination. 39