Opinion ID: 1790359
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the commonwealth's attorney committed prejudicial error by crying in front of the jury

Text: Being unpreserved, the Appellant requests the Court to review the Commonwealth's Attorney's alleged misconduct in crying before the jury as palpable error under RCr 10.26. At two points during the trial, brief episodes of emotionality overcame the prosecuting attorney. Once while examining the Appellant's son, Donald Oakes, the witness became emotional in describing what he remembered of his deceased mother. This briefly caused the prosecutor to respond similarly. Again during the sentencing phase argument, the prosecutor recalled how the victim's children remembered their mother, which again brought about a brief quaver to her voice. No objection was made at either time. Trials are conducted by humans, who often show indignation, anger or sadness. This does not mean that real emotion is misconduct. The criteria by which to judge statements and actions during closing argument is whether or not the act is inflammatory, substantially prejudiced the defense, or violated the Appellant's constitutional rights. Byrd v. Commonwealth, 825 S.W.2d 272 (Ky.1992). We do not find that it did. Moreover, such conduct does not qualify as palpable error.