Opinion ID: 2169460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Refusal to Instruct on Relevance of Character Evidence

Text: The defendant's next contention on appeal is that the trial justice erred in refusing to instruct the jury on the relevance of evidence of the victim's combative character. In support of this argument, the defendant contends that there was sufficient evidence admitted at trial to warrant such an instruction (and he adds that there would have been a greater quantity of such evidence had the trial justice not made what defendant considers to have been the erroneous evidentiary rulings that we addressed in section I of this opinion). Before we reach the merits of defendant's contention with respect to the jury instruction, however, we must first determine whether the issue was properly preserved for appellate review. Rule 30 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure requires a party who wishes to interpose an objection to any portion of the charge or omission therefrom to state distinctly the matter to which the party objects and the grounds for that objection before the jury begins its deliberation. As we have repeatedly stated, Rule 30 bars a party from challenging an erroneous instruction unless the party, after directing the trial court's attention to the asserted error or omission, [articulates] with reasonable clarity the precise grounds for [the] objection. State v. Brown, 744 A.2d 831, 837 (R.I.2000) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also State v. Gardiner, 895 A.2d 703, 717 (R.I.2006); State v. Hanes, 783 A.2d 920, 924 (R.I.2001). The purpose of the specificity requirement is to alert the trial justice to the nature of the alleged error. See Brown, 744 A.2d at 837. We repeat here what we said quite recently in State v. Crow, 871 A.2d 930, 935 (R.I.2005): The requirement in Rule 30 that the objection to an instruction be made before the jury retires (and that it be made with clarity and specificity) is crucial because, once alerted to the perceived error in the instruction that has been given, the trial justice has an opportunity to cure the alleged deficiencies before the jury retires for deliberations. Absent a sufficiently specific objection, the trial justice cannot be expected to be endowed with that quantum of total recall which would enable him or her at the conclusion of the charge to be certain that all necessary points have been covered accurately and completely. State v. De-Ciantis, 501 A.2d 365, 368 (R.I.1985) (quoting State v. Williams, 432 A.2d 667, 670 (R.I.1981)). In the instant case, at the close of the evidence, defense counsel filed written requests for jury instructions. Request Nos. 27, 28, 29 and 30 all pertained to self-defense; specifically, they concerned the victim's character for violence. Request No. 30, which is the instruction that defendant now contends was erroneously omitted by the trial justice, reads as follows: The Defendant has introduced evidence of the decedent's character. More specifically the Defendant has introduced opinion evidence and reputation evidence about a character trait for violence. You should consider character evidence together with and in the same manner as all the other evidence. Character evidence alone may create a reasonable doubt of the Defendant's guilt. During his initial charge to the jury, the trial justice gave a general instruction as to when a defendant is entitled to invoke the doctrine of self-defense. At the end of the initial charge, defense counsel objected to the trial justice's failure to have given his requested instruction Nos. 27, 28, 29 and 30. The trial justice then agreed to instruct the jurors that they could consider those prior specific violent acts committed by Mrs. Senerchia of which defendant was aware at the time of the encounter with her; however, he was unwilling to give the instruction set forth in request No. 30. He stated that he was not satisfied that there has been sufficient evidence that has been introduced that establishes that Bettie Senerchia had a character trait for violence. After proceeding to give further instructions to the jury, the trial justice asked counsel for defendant whether he had any other objections; and defense counsel responded: No, Judge, it's fine. This response could reasonably be understood to mean (1) that defense counsel was satisfied that the instructions given by the trial justice after defendant's objection had cured any perceived error contained therein or (2) that defense counsel, for tactical reasons, had opted not to pursue the matter further. If, at the end of the trial justice's supplemental charge to the jury, defendant still felt that the substance of the content of request No. 30 had been omitted improperly, defendant should have distinctly stated his objection and the grounds for same on the record at that time. Because no such objection was raised, defendant has not properly preserved the issue for appellate review. B