Opinion ID: 432005
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prosecutor's Improper Question

Text: 28 Gigante complains that he was prejudiced by the prosecutor's improper questioning of Sirabella. At the very end of Sirabella's direct testimony, the prosecutor asked Sirabella, Mr. Sirabella, as you sit there today, are you still afraid? The defense objection was sustained. Sirabella nevertheless answered in the affirmative; his answer was stricken, and the jury was promptly cautioned that it must disregard that question and answer. Although we agree that the question at issue was improper, we conclude that it does not warrant a reversal. 29 The statute under which Gigante was prosecuted makes relevant a debtor's state of mind at the time the extension of credit was made and at the time a collection or an attempt at collection was made. 18 U.S.C. Secs. 892(c), 894(c). Neither section makes relevant the debtor's state of mind at the time of trial. While evidence of a person's state of mind at a particular time may be admitted to show his state of mind at an earlier time if it is reasonable to assume a continuity between the two times, see, e.g., C. McCormick, Handbook of the Law of Evidence Sec. 294, at 696 (2d ed. 1972), it is within the trial court's discretion to assess in that light the probative value of the proffered evidence, id.; see Fed.R.Evid. 403. Here the trial court excluded the evidence as improper, an assessment that appears correct in light of the more than two-year hiatus between the trial and Sirabella's last encounter with the defendants. 30 In all the circumstances, however, we conclude that the impropriety does not warrant reversal. The court struck the witness's answer and immediately gave an appropriate curative instruction. Given these prompt corrective measures and the previously received proper evidence of Sirabella's fears during his dealings with Gigante and of the threats and violence that had been directed against him by Gigante, the jury was unlikely to have been influenced by the prosecutor's improper question.