Opinion ID: 1733568
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the argument must be incurable

Text: Should a complaining party establish that the unobjected-to closing argument being challenged is both improper and harmful, the party must then establish that the argument is incurable. Specifically, a complaining party must establish that even if the trial court had sustained a timely objection to the improper argument and instructed the jury to disregard the improper argument, such curative measures could not have eliminated the probability that the unobjected-to argument resulted in an improper verdict. This concept of incurability can be traced back to the Baggett standard that a timely objection to improper closing argument is required before a new trial may be granted based on such argument unless the improper remarks are of such character that neither rebuke nor retraction may entirely destroy their sinister influence. 124 Fla. at 717, 169 So. at 379. As evidenced in Akin and Baggett, it will be extremely difficult for a complaining party to establish that the unobjected-to argument is incurable.