Opinion ID: 1859463
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: prosecutorial miscoduct.

Text: ¶ 24. A trial judge possesses the authority to declare a mistrial where prosecutorial conduct substantially deflects the attention of the jury from the issues that it has been called upon to decide or appeals to bias, passion, or prejudice, and, therefore, significantly impairs a defendant's right to a fair trial. Hickson v. State, 472 So.2d 379, 384 (Miss.1985). Although it is the duty of the district attorney to prosecute a case with diligence, it is also his duty to see that the defendant as well as the State receives a fair and impartial trial. McCaskill v. State, 227 So.2d 847, 852 (Miss.1969). However, the trial judge is the person best situated to decide upon the course of conduct necessary to elicit the truth and yet safeguard the rights of the accused, and unless we can say, from the whole record, he abused his discretion, we should not reverse. Summerville v. State, 207 Miss. 54, 65, 41 So.2d 377, 380 (1949). ¶ 25. Mixon claims that he was prejudiced by the State's last minute discovery of a third statement. The third statement added some details to the second statement, but all of these details were corroborated by other witnesses and defense counsel should have already known them. He also complains that he did not receive the State Crime Lab report until June 14, 1999. However, the trial did not begin until November 8, 1999, giving defense counsel more than enough time to examine the report and prepare for trial. ¶ 26. Mixon contends that the State instructed the State Crime Lab not to cooperate with the defense. However, after the trial court and the State spoke with the State Crime Lab, its personnel cooperated with the defense. Mixon does not point to one specific instance where information that he needed to present an adequate defense was withheld from him. ¶ 27. Finally, Mixon points to inconsistencies in and tampering with the audiotapes of his statements. A laboratory which analyzed the tapes found them to be completely clean and to contain nothing suspicious, even though Mixon complained of unaccounted for lapses of time. Mixon contended that the laboratory was biased towards the prosecution and wished to have the tapes analyzed by his own expert. The trial court did not allow Mixon to have his requested expert, but it did allow him to send the tapes to a cheaper laboratory. Mixon makes much of a report that detailed two suspicious sounds which could have been caused by power failure to support his claim of tampering. But the report itself reveals that the two sounds lasted a fraction of a second each. There is absolutely no support in the record for Mixon's allegations of tampering. ¶ 28. We find that the prosecution did not engage in conduct which substantially deflected the attention of the jury from the issues that it was called upon to decide, appealed to bias, passion, or prejudice, or significantly impaired Mixon's right to a fair trial. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Mixon's motion for a mistrial.