Opinion ID: 654621
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Improper Reference to Exercise of Miranda Rights and

Text: Denial of a Fair Trial 13 The appellant asserts that the defendant's Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated because the defendant elected to exercise his Miranda right to remain silent following his arrest and this fact was mentioned during the testimony of postal inspector Hearn. 3 This argument is without merit. The appellant did not remain silent. He made no statement directly to Inspector Hearn. Trial Transcript at 76. The appellant, however, did make a statement at the time of arrest to law enforcement officers. He told Deputy Sheriff Webb, while still at the Willow Street house, that his name was Ricky Cummings and that he was a student. The appellant further told Deputy Webb that the Datsun 300 ZX in the front yard belonged to his cousin Stevie Stevenson. 14 Contentions by the appellant that he did not receive a fair trial here because of prejudicial comments made by a government witness concerning other charges he faced and because of comments made by the prosecution during closing are not grounds for reversal. Defense counsel did not object to the statements at trial and the district judge did not see the need for a limiting instruction. 15 The failure to make a timely objection to alleged errors in jury instructions results in a waiver of those objections unless, on appeal, the error is determined to be so fundamental as to cause a miscarriage of justice. United States v. McNeese, 901 F.2d 585, 608 (7th Cir.1990); United States v. Requarth, 847 F.2d 1249, 1252-54 (7th Cir.1988). See also F.R.Cr.P. 52(b) and Fed.R.Evid. 103(d). When a defendant has failed to preserve an issue for appeal by an objection, an appellate court may review the alleged error only under the plain error doctrine. McNeese, 901 F.2d at 608; Requarth, 847 F.2d at 1254. This result follows directly from F.R.Cr.P. 30 which in part provides: 16 No party may assign as error any portion of the charge unless that party objects thereto before the jury retires to consider its verdict, stating distinctly the matter to which that party objects and the grounds for the objection. 17 The errors complained of by the appellant do not rise to the level of plain error, as expressed in those rules. The Supreme Court has described plain errors as those errors that seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 7, 15, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1042, 1046, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (referring to the codification of United States v. Atkinson, 297 U.S. 157, 160, 56 S.Ct. 391, 392, 80 L.Ed. 555 (1936) in F.R.Cr.P. 52(b)). The Court is attempting to balance the need for a fair and accurate trial the first time around against redressing obvious injustices. The plain error exception to the contemporaneous objection rule is to be used sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result. United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163, n. 14, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 1592, n. 14, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982). The plain error rule authorizes the Courts of Appeals to correct only particularly egregious errors. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 15, 105 S.Ct. 1038, 1046, 84 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985). 18 The Court held in United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U.S. 150, 238-39, 60 S.Ct. 811, 851, 84 L.Ed. 1129 (1940) that counsel for the defendant cannot as a rule remain silent, interpose no objections, and after a verdict has been returned, seize for the first time on the point that [the prosecutor's] comments to the jury were improper and prejudicial. 19 Reviewing courts can only address plain error by evaluating such a claim against the entire record. [A]ppellate courts [must] relive the whole trial ... and not ... extract from episodes in isolation abstract questions of evidence and procedure. To turn a criminal trial into a quest for error no more promotes the ends of justice than to acquiesce in low standards of criminal prosecution. United States v. Young, 470 U.S. at 16, 105 S.Ct. at 1047 (quoting Johnson v. United States, 318 U.S. 189, 202, 63 S.Ct. 549, 555, 87 L.Ed. 704 (1943) (Frankfurter, J., concurring)). 20 The errors that the appellant complains of were not egregious and do not rise to the level of plain error.