Opinion ID: 1743160
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: withholding objections to closing argument

Text: Of like import is Johnson's claim that his trial counsel were ineffective because they asked the trial judge to permit them to withhold objections to the state's argument until its completion and outside the presence of the jury. This clearly was a tactical decision of counsel. They, of course, knew they had the right to object whenever an improper argument was made. The very fact they made this request to the court evinced an awareness this right. Rather than risk offending the jury by objecting during argument, they asked permission to withhold objection and make it outside the presence of the jury. We criticized this sort of practice because when an improper argument was in fact made, it did not give the circuit judge the opportunity to correct it promptly upon objection by opposing counsel. A conscious choice of trial strategy by defense counsel which proves unfortunate is not to be equated with incompetency. Roe v. State, 95 Wis.2d 226, 290 N.W.2d 291 (1980); State v. Baker, 169 W. Va. 357, 287 S.E.2d 497 (1982). Moreover, in our original opinion we found that the state did not make a prejudicial argument.