Opinion ID: 1279040
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Mistrial due to Escape Question

Text: We have held in the past that evidence of a prior escape is proper reply to a defendant's presentation of evidence of his good conduct while in prison. See State v. Woomer, 278 S.C. 468, 299 S.E.2d 317 (1982), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1229, 103 S.Ct. 3572, 77 L.Ed.2d 1413 (1983). We have also held that evidence the defendant was an escapee at the time he committed a murder was admissible evidence in the sentencing phase. See State v. Plath, supra . Appellant's situation, however, is distinguishable from Woomer and Plath in the sense that he has never been an escapee and there was no evidence he had ever attempted to escape confinement. The trial court therefore properly refused to allow Aiken to answer the State's question. We find the court's curative instruction removed any prejudice because it made it clear that the question asked by the State was improper and asked the jury to disavow that question from their minds. Further, the curative instruction, without mentioning the contents of the escape question again, emphasized that the jury was to be concerned with only two sentences: death and life without the possibility of parole, and that life without parole meant until the death of the defendant. This instruction was sufficient to cure any alleged prejudice caused by the State's question. Therefore, we hold the trial court did not err by refusing to grant a mistrial in light of its curative instruction. See State v. Vazquez, 364 S.C. 293, 613 S.E.2d 359 (2005) (mistrial should be ordered only when an incident is so grievous that prejudicial effect cannot be removed).