Opinion ID: 1943879
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Appeals to Jurors' Sympathy and to Send a Message

Text: We have held that closing argument may not be used to inflame the minds and passions of the jurors so that their verdict reflects an emotional response... rather than the logical analysis of the evidence in light of the applicable law. Bertolotti v. State, 476 So.2d 130, 134 (Fla.1985), quoted in Dixon v. United States, 565 A.2d 72, 75 (D.C.1989). This is not such a case. We therefore hold that the following excerpts, most heavily emphasized by appellant, did not require the trial court to intervene in order to avoid plain error:  The prosecutor stated that the jurors were blessedly not personally connected with the events, referring to the triple murder and Wiseman's slaying.  In discussing Wiseman's death, the prosecutor said, She has left her daughter, she has left her family, the people who were close to her, the people whom she talked to just about every day were snatched away, and Takisha Wiseman is gone, and a similar statement was made later in the closing.  On numerous occasions in the closing, the prosecutor made statements characterizing the events in question as horrific: the horror, the nightmare, the tragedy of four lives snuffed out because of one man; ... how this horrible, horrible story ended.... Where these horrible facts stopped ...; it was then that the nightmare began.  The prosecutor also argued that Wiseman's killer had one sick, sinister motive... it just wasn't murder. It was an execution followed by a burning.