Opinion ID: 1439460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Improper Closing Remarks

Text: For his last point on appeal, Appellant argues that the trial court erred by failing to declare a mistrial after the State made an improper remark during closing arguments. Specifically, Appellant's objection arises from the following comment: Now Mr. Harper talked a whole lot about how bad the police messed up and what all they didn't find, but you know what he didn't talk about? He didn't talk about where Billy Green was that night. You didn't hear him explain that, did you? And I'll tell you why he didn't explain it because he can't. A mistrial is a drastic remedy to be used only when an error is so prejudicial that justice cannot be served by continuing the trial and when the prejudicial statement cannot be cured by an instruction. Jones, 340 Ark. 390, 10 S.W.3d 449. Moreover, the trial court has the sound discretion to decide whether to grant a mistrial, and this decision will not be overturned absent a showing of abuse or upon manifest prejudice to the complaining party. Id. In the present case, we are faced with a situation where Appellant alleges that the State made an improper comment in reference to his failure to testify. If a prosecutor is alleged to have made an improper comment such as this, we review the statements through a two-step test. Jones, 340 Ark. 390, 10 S.W.3d 449. First, we determine whether the comment is an improper comment on the defendant's failure to testify. Id. It has long been the rule that a prosecutor may not draw attention to the fact of, or comment on, a defendant's failure to testify. Id. See also Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); Landreth v. State, 331 Ark. 12, 960 S.W.2d 434 (1998). These comments are not allowed, because to do otherwise, makes the defendant testify against himself in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Id. Moreover, a veiled reference to the defendant's failure to testify is also improper. Id. Second, if this court determines that a prosecutor did refer to the defendant's choice not to testify, we then determine whether it can be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the error did not influence the verdict. Jones, 340 Ark. 390, 10 S.W.3d 449. See also Chapman, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705. With this standard in mind, we now turn to the present case. Here, we believe that the prosecutor's comment did not refer to Appellant's failure to testify, and as such was not improper. The statement referred to Appellant's counsel's remarks during opening statements that Appellant wasn't there and you'll see when you hear Chad's testimony and the testimony of other people how he couldn't have been there. Thus, this was something that the prosecutor could comment on. Therefore, the trial court did not err in failing to grant the mistrial.