Opinion ID: 1830813
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the Circuit Court Committed Reversible Error When it Denied Mickell's Motion for a Mistrial.

Text: ¶ 15. During cross-examination, the State asked Mickell if he had attempted to sell a gun to someone at Sumrall Construction Company earlier that day. No objection to this question was made by defense counsel, and Mickell answered, no. However, the State never offered evidence supplying a foundation for the question. At the close of the State's rebuttal case, Mickell made a motion for a mistrial which was denied by the trial court. ¶ 16. Mickell argues that the question did not become objectionable until the State failed to put on any evidence in rebuttal that Mickell had tried to sell a gun earlier that day. He argues that by asking such a question, the State made a naked accusation through the prosecutor, and when the State failed to put on any evidence in rebuttal to support such an allegation, it denied him his right to confront witnesses testifying against him. ¶ 17. This Court has held that unless a contemporaneous objection to error is made, it will not be considered on appeal. Hill v. State, 432 So.2d 427, 439 (Miss. 1983). However in cases of prosecutorial misconduct we have held, this Court has not been constrained from considering the merits of the alleged prejudice by the fact that objections were made and sustained, or that no objections were made. Wood v. State, 257 So.2d 193, 200 (Miss.1972); Howell v. State, 411 So.2d 772, 776 (Miss. 1982); Forrest v. State, 335 So.2d 900, 902 (Miss.1976). Smith v. State, 457 So.2d 327, 333-334 (Miss.1984). ¶ 18. In Smith, the district attorney asked the appellant's witness on cross-examination whether she was selling her body in Jackson like she did on the coast. The witness responded with a general denial. 457 So.2d at 334. In addressing the issue, the Court stated: In Stewart v. State, 263 So.2d 754 (Miss.1972), this Court, citing Johns v. State[ 255 So.2d 322 (Miss. 1971)], held that the state's cross-examination of an important defense witness to the effect that every place he had worked seemed to have been burglarized was clearly erroneous where there was no record that he had even been accused of the burglaries to which insinuation was made. Id. at 758. This Court also relied on 98 C.J.S. Witnesses § 515, p. 423 (1957), which states: Cross-examination into the character of a witness may not be in the form of attempts to discredit him by means of sneers and innuendo. Hence it is improper, under the pretense of affecting the credibility of a witness, to propound interrogatories without any attempt or pretense to establish the truthfulness of the matters suggested by such inquiry and thereby cast insinuations on the witness.... Id. at 757-758. The district attorney's remarks come squarely within the prohibition in Stewart v. State against insinuations of criminal conduct which are unsupported by any proof.... Smith at 334. ¶ 19. Certainly the question had some relevance as to whether Mickell had a gun in his possession. In Lewis v. State, 580 So.2d 1279 (Miss.1991), the defendant was charged with aggravated assault. He denied having possessed a gun on the night in question. The State called the victim's aunt on rebuttal who testified that the defendant had been over at her house three days earlier with a gun. Lewis at 1287. The Court held: Here the testimony was not introduced as a specific instance of conduct to impeach Lewis's credibility, and thus, Miss.R.Evid. 608(b) is not applicable. Nor was impeachment, in this instance, on a collateral issue. Who had a gun and who was the aggressor was central factual issue. . . . . . . Lewis claimed that his attack came after Ms. Carter approached him with both a knife and a gun. No one but Lewis testified to seeing a knife, and Lewis claimed that he never had possession of a gun. He denied having a gun when he came looking for the victim three days later. Ms. White's testimony was offered to show that Lewis had a gun three days before. Based on the reasoning in Pinkney[ 538 So.2d 329 (Miss. 1988)], Ms. White's testimony was not reputation or character evidence but a statement of fact relevant to the merits. Consequently, the testimony was admissible, and this assignment of error is without merit. Lewis at 1287-1288. ¶ 20. However, unlike Lewis, the evidence was not brought out by the testimony of a rebuttal witness in response to Mickell's denial to having possessed a gun that day, but rather was in the form of an unproven allegation by the State. The State was under an obligation to support such an allegation with proper evidence, which was not done in this case. Furthermore, unlike Smith, supra, there was no admonition to the jury in the present case to disregard the prosecutor's remarks. Therefore we also reverse on this issue and remand for a new trial.