Opinion ID: 1723327
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: improper argument in sentencing phase

Text: In complaining of improper argument of the district attorney during the sentencing phase, Johnson contends the state led the jury to believe if he were sentenced to life, he would eventually be paroled. Pertinent parts of the argument for the state and defense are as follows: CLOSING ARGUMENT ON BEHALF OF THE STATE BY MR. EVANS: Now, what you're considering is serious business. It's about as serious as it gets in our law and in our lives. And a lot of good-hearted and well-meaning people who don't understand the purpose and the necessity of capital punishment will probably say that I'm very cold and harsh and cruel when I stand here and I say that because of having been convicted of second degree assault with intent to commit first degree rape and capital murder that Samuel Johnson should die... . [Vol. XIII, p. 2276]       This makes the tenth time that I have either tried or prepared for trial a capital murder case, and if Mr. Johnson's lawyers argue like all those others I've been involved in, they'll ask you for mercy, they'll ask you for compassion; and they'll ask you for compassion, if they're like the others and tell you that Samuel Johnson doesn't want to die. Billy didn't want to die either. And if they argue like the others, they'll ask you for mercy and plead for Samuel Johnson's life. Billy plead for his life. But mercy wasn't in the heart of Samuel Johnson last New Year's Eve when he told Charles Montgomery twice to shoot... . [Vol. XIII, p. 2277] CLOSING ARGUMENT ON BEHALF OF THE DEFENDANT BY MR. HARPER: ... The only thing I'm here to do right now is to ask you to spare his life. And Mr. Evans is right, I am getting up here asking for mercy. I am asking you to spare his life. I want you to remember what Dr. Fisher said. And on this Instruction, PS-2, that Mr. Evans has referred to, there are several things that you are to consider as mitigating circumstances. I want you to study this instruction when you get back there and I want you to remember what Dr. Fisher said, that he can function in prison with that life sentence and not be violent. [Vol. XIII, pp. 2279-2280]       I ask you to study the instruction here and remember those things, and I ask you to think about what it's going to be like if he goes to the gas chamber, what it will be like there, and I ask you to spare his life. [Vol. XIII, p. 2281] FINAL CLOSING ARGUMENT ON BEHALF OF THE STATE BY MR. EVANS: I can tell you what it's like. It's a gray room all the way around about like this and there's a bench in it and under that bench, there is a pail of water and above that are two pills, and the Sheriff pulls the handle that drops those pills into water. Then Sam Johnson will take a deep breath and in five to ten seconds his life will be ended. There will be no pain, there will be no agony, there will be no suffering. He won't feel a knife in his back and he won't feel a bullet exploding in his brain. And that's what it's like. Dr. Fisher said that Samuel Johnson can adapt to prison life. My first response was that we're not here to see how Sam Johnson will adapt to prison life. What concerns me is what is going to happen the next time he decides to commit a second degree assault with intent to rape and what is going to happen the next time he decides he wants a Highway Patrolman or another law enforcement officer dead. You heard Dr. Fisher's testimony that inside prison his potential for violence was low, but outside, it was high. I just can't get concerned about how he would adapt to prison life when I know that his potential for dangerousness on the outside is high. [Vol. XIII, p. 2282]       ... [W]e have a system that really does work after all. And, as I told you before, I will now, in the name of that system and the decent, law-abiding people in Mississippi, and by the authority that the ones in the Thirteenth District gave me, I'm going to ask that you retire and come back in a little while and tell Judge Pittman by your verdict, yes, we find that the aggravating circumstances do outweigh the mitigating circumstances we find that a man who commits second degree assault with intent to commit first degree rape and a man who has been returned to the penitentiary again and again and again, spent 10 of the last 18 years in the penitentiary, and a man who has a high potential for hurting other people and a man who has taken an innocent life when he killed an officer while that officer was enforcing the laws of our good people, has chosen himself to forfeit his life in the eyes of God and in the eyes of our law. You are not the one executing Samuel Johnson. Regardless of what they tell you, you're not the one. He chose that himself when he decided to be a criminal in 1963. So, as I said, I now ask you to retire and return shortly and tell Judge Pittman that the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances and because of that, Samuel Johnson should suffer the penalty of death. [Vol. XIII, p. 2287] In Hill v. State, 432 So.2d 427, p. 439 (Miss. 1983); and in Wiley v. State, 449 So.2d 756, p. 761 (Miss. 1984), we condemned an argument which intimated to the jury that their decision was not the last word. In Wiley, we likewise disapproved an argument by the prosecution which stresses that any sentence to life imprisonment inevitably means parole for the convicted person, rather than having to serve his entire life in prison. It is clear from the argument from the prosecution in this case that the district attorney never reached the type of argument which we condemned in Hill, supra, or in Wiley, supra. The argument made was in answer to the argument of defense counsel, and was fair argument. In addition to this, defense counsel made no objection whatever to the argument by the state. As we have stated many times, and again in Hill, we are not obligated to review any assignment of error for closing argument in which there was no objection made during the trial. We have carefully reviewed the entire argument by the state and defense counsel, and we find no reversible error for any statement made by the prosecution.