Opinion ID: 1850677
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statement II.

Text: ¶ 23. The second statement challenged by Wright occurred during rebuttal of closing argument. There, the comment was: I guess what [the defense attorney] was arguing now is that it was consensual. I have not heard any evidence, ladies and gentlemen, in the two days we have been here, that they had consensual sex. So there was something to hide. . . . Wright's timely objection was again overruled and his subsequent motion for mistrial was denied. ¶ 24. When the statement is not an outright violation, this Court will review the facts on a case-by-case basis. Logan v. State, 773 So.2d 338, 348 (Miss.2000). As discussed supra, not every comment regarding the lack of any defense is automatically deemed to point toward the defense's failure to testify. Jimpson v. State, 532 So.2d 985, at 991 (Miss.1988). Attorneys are to be given wide latitude in making their closing arguments. Id. (citing Johnson v. State, 477 So.2d 196, 209 (Miss.1985)). The state's position is that both statements merely addressed Wright's failure to present any defense at all, and thus were a permissible argument. In support of this contention, the state cites Jimpson, in which the prosecutor commented on the fact that the defendant failed to show a lawful reason for being in the area where the crime occurred, saying: A mile from the bank at exactly the time the woman got shot when he said he lived out in north Jackson and didn't even know Jackson. Didn't even know the streets, except he had some folks out on Bailey Avenue and where he was arrested? Bailey Avenue. Now what was he doing down there? They [4] haven't even bothered to tell you that. Id. Finding the lack of a successful defense to be a proper topic for closing argument, this Court opined that it is proper for the District Attorney to question the defense's inability to successfully explain Jimpson's presence in the area. Id. Such a comment was not addressing, or even alluding to, the defendant's failure to testify. Id. This reasoning would similarly apply to the statement in the present case. The state was simply pointing out that the defense's position, i.e., that Pope agreed to have sex with Wright, was unsupported by the evidence. Under our current precedence, this does not amount to a Fifth Amendment violation. See Cox v. State, 849 So.2d 1257, 1270 (Miss.2003); Wright's argument is without merit, and the trial court's denial of his motion for mistrial is affirmed.