Opinion ID: 1781968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: the cumulative error in this case requires a reversal in foster's death sentence.

Text: Foster suggests that even if this Court declines to find reversible error in any one of Foster's sentencing assignments, he is entitled to a resentencing under the doctrine of cumulative error. Griffin v. State, 557 So.2d 542, 552-54 (Miss. 1990) (improper voir dire, introduction of victim-impact material and defective closing argument amounted to cumulative error requiring vacation of sentence and remand for new trial); Stringer v. State, 500 So.2d 928, 946 (Miss. 1986) (improper voir dire, a defective closing argument and wrongful admission of irrelevant photographs comprised a series of near-errors which effectively killed any chance that Stringer could receive a fundamentally fair sentencing trial[.]) Foster argues that what this Court may consider harmless error in a non-capital case could be found to be reversible error under the heightened review required in a capital case. Irving v. State, 361 So.2d 1360, 1363 (Miss. 1978), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 913, 99 S.Ct. 2014, 60 L.Ed.2d 386 (1979). However, Foster does not provide a listing of the near errors he found in the record. We are left to create this list ourselves. As previously discussed under the individual propositions, no reversible error was committed in the trial of this case. We find no near errors in either phase of this trial, so we find no cumulative error. Mullen v. Blackburn, 808 F.2d 1143, 1147 (5th Cir.1987) (Court of Appeals rejected argument that even if no individual claim entitles petitioner to relief, the claims collectively do, and found that twenty times zero equals zero). We find no merit to this issue by Foster.