Opinion ID: 864456
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether the trial judge correctly informed

Text: THE JURY THAT THE DEFENDANT WAS PRESUMED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE BY THE STATE. 7 ¶12. During the fourth day of jury voir dire, the trial judge, according to Moody, incorrectly equated presumption of innocence with the directed verdict standard. The trial judge stated: Okay. Thank you. In order to accomplish our task, we must first select a jury of 12 people from among you. Once those 12 are selected, they will be sequestered or kept apart day and night for the remainder of the trial. We shall also select an appropriate number of alternates. During the first stage of the trial, it will be the responsibility of the jury to determine whether the defendant Kenneth Moody is guilty or not guilty of capital murder. In order for the jury to be able to make this decision, the jury will first be presented evidence by the state or the prosecution. This evidence will be that which the state has determined shows that Kenneth Moody is guilty of the crime as charged. However, the burden of proof is on the State of Mississippi to prove the defendant is guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. After the state has concluded its presentation of evidence, the defendant Kenneth Moody may present evidence in his on (sic) behalf; however he is not required to do so. The defendant is not required to testify himself nor is he required to call any witnesses whatsoever. The defendant Kenneth Moody has no burden to prove his innocence of this crime or to prove anything at all. The reason for this is that under our system of laws the defendant is presumed innocent of the crime charged and has no duty to prove his innocence. In this same vein, I will tell you that the defendant is not required to testify in his own behalf. The jury cannot consider the fact that the defendant does not testify as evidence of guilt. This is a constitutional right and cannot be questioned by a jury. Now, let me pause here parenthetically and go in depth with you a little bit more about the presumption of innocence. Do all of you understand, as he sits there now, this defendant is presumed to be innocent? (Jurors nod affirmatively) 8 Okay. That presumption of innocence attends him and follows him throughout the course of the trial unless and until it is overcome by the State of Mississippi. Now, if it is not, you will not have to worry about it because the Court will rule on that. But even though there is the presumption of innocence, if at any point during the course of the trial the states (sic) overcomes that presumption of innocence, then from that point on that presumption of innocence no longer attends the defendant. (Emphasis added). ¶13. The State argues that no contemporaneous objection was made at the time of the trial judge's giving the instruction and that Moody did not object until after the remaining members of the jury panel had been excused, which therefore did not give the trial judge a timely opportunity to correct the mistake. When he finally did object, Moody argued: MR. HORAN: Your Honor, Kenneth Moody comes before the Court and moves for a mistrial on the following grounds as well: During the Court's presentation, discussion and preamble to the jury in stating – and maybe I misheard the Court, but out of abundance of caution, I will basically paraphrase. I believe the Court stated that the presumption of innocence rides (sic) with the defendant throughout the proceedings and that it can only be overcome by proof from the state, and that if the state does not overcome that presumption, they won't have to worry about it, that the Court would take care of it. In our opinion, that is a misstatement of the law to some extent. THE COURT: In what regard? MR. HORAN: If the court gives the case to the jury, i.e., does not direct a verdict at the end of the state's case. THE COURT: That is exactly what I was talking about. MR. HORAN: Yes, sir. THE COURT: If they don't meet it, I direct a verdict. 9 MR. HORAN: Yes. But the presumption of innocence still rides (sic) with him. THE COURT: It's a moot matter at that point because it's been a directed verdict and he's not before the–the jury has no determination to make. MR. HORAN: The point is, if the converse is not true, that if the case goes to the jury or, i.e., gets past a directed verdict, that that appears to say that presumption has been made; and, therefore, the defendant must put on some proof to overcome it. THE COURT: That is not what it says at all. I'll note your motion and overrule the same. ¶14. In capital cases, the procedural bar may be relaxed because of the nature of the right asserted. See West v. State, 485 So.2d 681, 687-88 (Miss. 1985). Also, this Court has relaxed its procedural bar to consider serious cumulative errors. See Williams v. State, 445 So.2d 798 (Miss. 1984). Even in capital cases, a procedural bar is applied on a case-by-case basis, based on a number of factors. Pinkney v. State, 538 So.2d 329, 338 (Miss. 1988). ¶15. In Hull v. State, 687 So.2d 708, 719-720 (Miss. 1996), this Court refused to review a judge's comments to the jury during voir dire which drew no objection until counsel had gone to the trial judge's chambers and were outside the presence of the jury. We held in King v. State, 615 So.2d 1202, 1205 (Miss. 1993), that it was elementary that, for preservation of error for review, there must be contemporaneous objections. (citing Smith v. State, 530 So.2d 155, 161-62 (Miss. 1988)). 10 ¶16. This Court has decided many cases addressing a failure to give a contemporaneous objection constituting a waiver of that issue on appeal. In Doss v. State, 709 So.2d 369 (Miss. 1996), we held that a lack of contemporaneous objection to striking prospective jurors for cause was a procedural bar as to that issue on appeal. In Irving v. State, 498 So.2d 305 (Miss. 1986), we held that a death penalty defendant's failure to make a contemporaneous objection to the racial composition of his jury waived the issue of alleged improper use of peremptory challenges to remove black jurors. In Ballenger v. State, 667 So.2d 1242 (Miss. 1995), we held that the failure of the defendant to make a contemporaneous objection to the moving of a venireman to the end of the list of potential jurors as violative of her due process rights left the claim unpreserved on appeal. ¶17. A recent case involving the presumption of innocence is Simmons v. State, 805 So.2d 452 (Miss. 2001). We found no error where the trial judge sustained the State’s objection to the defense calling the defendant an innocent man, instead of saying he was presumed innocent. ¶18. The record in this case reveals that the objection was not contemporaneous with the trial judge’s alleged prejudicial voir dire to the prospective jurors. Additionally, after these objectionable comments were made by the trial judge, he continued the court’s voir dire and informed the prospective jurors that after all the evidence was presented, he would give detailed instructions of law to the jury to guide them in making a decision as to “guilt or innocence.” The trial judge also informed the jury panel that after the instructions had been read to the jury, the trial jurors would hear closing arguments from the attorneys and then the 11 jury would retire to determine whether Moody was “guilty or not guilty” as to each of the two counts of capital murder. Then the trial judge moved into another major area of examination of the prospective jurors regarding the penalty phase of the trial, inquiring into their feelings about the death penalty, and several jurors were individually questioned by the judge on this issue. The trial court in due course declared a noon recess, and upon return from the noon recess, but outside the presence of the jury panel, the trial judge for the first time heard defense counsel’s objection to his supposed prejudicial comments to the jury panel during the court’s voir dire that morning. This was certainly not a contemporaneous objection. Additionally, there is no error as to this issue. The trial judge even admitted that if Moody's interpretation of his comments to the jury is the correct interpretation, then I have been in error for 25 years. While there was one comment by the judge that he would take the case from the jury if the State did not present sufficient evidence to overcome the defendant’s presumption of innocence (thereby perhaps inferring that if the jury got the case for deliberation, the State, in the judge’s opinion, had overcome the presumption of innocence), when one reads the entire transcript of the court’s voir dire on the presumption of innocence, the burden placed on the State, which is never removed, and the jury’s responsibilities once it gets the case for deliberation and decision, there is no doubt that the trial court properly informed the jury on these points. Moody was represented by very capable defense attorneys with years of experience in criminal defense, one of whom also had years of experience as an assistant district attorney. This Court has no doubt but that if either of these very capable attorneys believed that Judge McKenzie had committed such an 12 egregious error at the time he made these objectionable comments to the jury, one of them would have hit the floor with a vigorous objection. Further, Jury Instructions C-3 and C-4 were given, without objection, by the trial judge. These instructions fully set out the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof, and provide correct statements of law and cure any possible error. Both sides concede that It is presumed that the jury follows the judge's instructions. Davis v. State, 660 So.2d 1228, 1253 (Miss. 1995); Walker v. State, 671 So.2d 581, 618 (Miss. 1995). ¶19. Finally, on this issue, we must also remember that these objectionable comments were made during the fourth day of voir dire on March 29, 2001. We can be certain that when these jurors retired to deliberate on April 12, 2001, some fifteen (15) days and 1,780 pages of trial transcript later, after being fully questioned on voir dire, after hearing all the evidence, and after receiving the jury instructions and hearing closing arguments of counsel, their verdicts were not in any way affected by this one comment made by the trial judge during voir dire. ¶20. This assignment of error is without merit.