Opinion ID: 1657574
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 19

Heading: the trial court's comments to the jury concerning the length of deliberations was unduly coercive.

Text: After the close of all evidence, the trial judge instructed the jury in part: All right, Ladies and Gentlemen, you've now heard everything there is to hear about this case. It's time for you to retire to your jury room with an end of trying to reach a sentence if you can do so without violence to your individual judgment. You will be given the instructions that have been offered and received. You'll be given the Court's instructions and the long instruction concerning how the sentence should be [sic] will be S-1, which is at the end of the stack of instructions. You will be given a pad on which to write your sentence should you reach one. If you reach a sentence, follow the guidelines in S-1, have your foreman sign the sentence if it is death, knock on the door and tell the Bailiffs that you have reached a verdict-a sentence, and the Bailiff will notify us. You should have some food arriving in about thirty minutes. The Clerk has called the Clerk's office in Winona to tell them that you will be home sometime this evening and had them call your families. So, that has been taken care of. With that said, Mr. Pace, if you would keep your seat, the rest of you will retire to the jury room. Russell contends that these comments were unduly coercive and therefore, his death sentence must be set aside. The State argues that Russell did not lodge a contemporaneous objection to the trial judge's comment to the jury. Thus, the State argues, Russell is procedurally barred from raising this issue on appeal. Foster, supra ; Chase v. State, 645 So.2d 829, 850 (Miss. 1994). Upon careful review of the record, we note that Russell did not object at trial to the above comments. Accordingly, we hold that Russell is procedurally barred from raising this issue on appeal. Foster, supra .