Opinion ID: 1624312
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: was the testimony of dr. ray lyle objectionable?

Text: Dr. Lyle testified that he was called to the emergency room July 1, 1985, to see Jennifer. He testified that when he first saw her she was relatively calm and just sitting by her mother, with blood on her head and some on her clothes, but very calm. Children are usually pretty upset and fearful in such a situation, but she was strangely subdued and even passive and so caught the attention of the doctor. He further testified that this is either indicative of a superbly mature little girl for the age or a depressed little girl and so fearful that she is not excited. The doctor was then asked And is this consistent with child abuse? As he began to answer, counsel for Ivy objected because that was a conclusion for the jury to make. The prosecutor responded that he is an expert and should be allowed to give his opinion. The court overruled the objection, and the doctor testified It is one of the findings in a child that makes me worry about child abuse certainly if it's in association with an injury. Ivy argues that his testimony should have been excluded because the doctor was qualified as an expert in pediatrics and not in child psychology or psychiatry. Mississippi Rules of Evidence 103(a)(1) provides the following: Error may not be predicated upon a ruling which admits or excludes evidence unless a substantial right of the party is affected, and ... [i]n case the ruling is one admitting evidence, a timely objection or motion to strike appears of record, stating the specific ground of objection, if the specific ground was not apparent from the context. .. . The objection that the doctor was testifying outside his field of specialty was not made to the trial judge and was obviously not apparent from the context because another specific objection was made. In Een v. Consolidated Freightway, 220 F.2d 82 (8th Cir.1955), a similar objection, that the question called for an answer invading the province of the jury, did not preserve the question of whether the witness was qualified in the applicable field of expertise. The objection which was made was without merit, and thus no objection was preserved. Id. at 87-88. In the same way, in Mississippi, an objection based on the question invading the province of the jury is now without merit under Mississippi Rule of Evidence 704, which states that opinion testimony otherwise admissible is not objectionable because it embraces an ultimate issue to be decided by the trier of fact. See Comm. to Rule 704. It is only logical that the appellant cannot now claim that the trial judge did not anticipate the correct ground for the objection. Baker v. State, 327 So.2d 288, 295 (Miss. 1976). See Stevens v. State, 458 So.2d 726, 730 (Miss. 1984) (applying the rule even to Fourth Amendment claims); Gill v. State, 485 So.2d 1047, 1051 (Miss. 1986). Finally, even if the objection were properly preserved, the doctor could still have given his opinion based on his prior experience with children in the emergency room. Miss.R.Evid. 702. Such a determination necessarily involves the exercise of a certain amount of discretion on the part of the trial judge. Hardy v. Brantley, 471 So.2d 358, 366 (Miss. 1985) (in a discussion which the Court stated to be consistent with proposed Rule 702). In federal courts, the qualification of an expert lies within the sound discretion of the trial judge, whose ruling will not be overturned in the absence of clear abuse. 3 Weinstein's Evidence 702[04] (1987). There is no merit to this assignment.