Opinion ID: 697321
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: additional guilt phase claims

Text: 19 Jones also challenges trial counsel's statement to the jury during closing argument that he was appointed by the court. Although we certainly do not approve of such comments, see Goodwin v. Balkcom, 684 F.2d 794, 806 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1098, 103 S.Ct. 1798, 76 L.Ed.2d 364 (1983), this particular statement was not so prejudicial, either alone or in conjunction with Jones's additional asserted errors, as to have possibly altered the outcome of this case. The further alleged failures of counsel to object to numerous statements by the prosecutor during the course of both the guilt and penalty phases of the trial are also without merit. In the district court, Jones pointed to twenty-six allegedly prejudicial remarks by the prosecution that went uncontested at trial. Having reviewed the contested statements, we agree with the district court that they suffer from no constitutional infirmity. The vast majority of the comments and arguments were permissible, and counsel was in no way defective for not objecting to them. A prosecutorial comment that misconstrued the nature of the defense was objected to; the trial court sustained the objection and instructed the jury to disregard the offending statement. Counsel was certainly not ineffective in this instance, and the statement itself was not so objectionable as to prejudice the proceedings.