Opinion ID: 1847325
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 29

Heading: the prosecutor improperly focused jurors' attention on the worth of the victim and the desires of his family.

Text: ś 175. Jerome takes exception to the district attorney's comments concerning the victim's family and work history as well as other aspects of the victim's worth. He states that these comments improperly misled the jury from the single relevant issue at that stage of the proceeding, that is, whether Clyde and Jerome had murdered Johnny B. Jerome asserts that the prosecutor urged the jurors to impose a death sentence because it was important to the victim's wife and son that his life not be reduced to numbers, and the town they live in not be reduced to a model. He maintains that these comments were extremely prejudicial and highly improper, citing Wiley v. State, 484 So.2d 339, 349 (Miss.1986), overruled on other grounds by Willie v. State, 585 So.2d 660 (Miss.1991); Fuselier v. State, 468 So.2d 45, 53 (Miss. 1985); Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808, 830 n. 2, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991). ś 176. As with the prosecutor's comments Jerome complained of above, he made no contemporaneous objection to these statements by the State. Furthermore, Jerome takes these comments out of context. Without ever having mentioned the death penalty, the prosecutor made the following comment: It's important to Jeanette Smith and Kevin Smith because, as you know and as you see now, their husband and father's life, as it is and was, is not reduced to numbers called S-1, S-2, S-5, S-12 and the town that they lived in is now reduced to a model [12] , which is designed to represent the place where Johnny Smith lost his life. Nowhere does the prosecutor encourage the jury to impose the death penalty because it is important to the victim's survivors. Instead, the prosecutor points out to the jury that the case involves real people, not just exhibits. Given the wide latitude generally afforded counsel in closing argument, taken together with the failure to object, this claim must fail. See Hansen v. State, 592 So.2d 114, 139-40 (Miss.1991); Johnson v. State, 416 So.2d 383, 392 (Miss.1982); Gray v. State, 351 So.2d 1342, 1346-47 (Miss.1977).