Opinion ID: 2539046
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Improper Penalty-Phase Closing Argument

Text: Here, Miller challenges for the first time on appeal remarks made by the prosecuting attorney that Miller contends were improper comments on the death sentence and remarks that were misstatements of the law concerning his alleged diminished capacity. Miller contends that these remarks, when coupled with improper guilt-phase closing argument, deprived him of his due-process right to a fair trial and fair sentencing proceeding. The first of these specific remarks in question were made in the context of the prosecuting attorney's summarization of the evidence of mitigating circumstances, and were to the effect that the jury had already rejected the evidence of Miller's mental retardation, paranoid schizophrenia, and of his mental disease or defect. Miller also challenges the prosecutor's comments that some crimes ... are so horrific, so awful, so heinous, that the only just verdict is the ultimate penalty and that is the payment of the Defendant's life for the victims. First, we note that Miller did not object at all during the penalty-phase closing argument. Absent a contemporaneous objection at trial, we will not review alleged errors in the State's closing argument unless they rise to a level that warrants the trial court to sua sponte declare a mistrial or admonish the jury. See Anderson, 357 Ark. 180, 163 S.W.3d 333; see also Bowen v. State, 322 Ark. 483, 911 S.W.2d 555 (1995). We cannot say the remarks at issue here rise to that level as they were not misstatements of the law but rather argument on the evidence. Second, we note that this court has previously declined to comment on an alleged error in sentencing-phase closing argument, as it determined such was not an issue that was likely to arise on remand. Daniels v. State, 373 Ark. 536, 285 S.W.3d 205 (2008), superseded by statute, Act 460 of 2009, as recognized in Heard v. State, 2009 Ark. 546, 354 S.W.3d 49.