Opinion ID: 1610587
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Did the trial judge's statements trivialize the role of the jury in a manner incompatible with the seriousness of a capital trial?

Text: Once the jury was chosen, but before they were sworn, the trial judge reiterated the importance of the jury's sequestration. During this soliloquy by the trial judge, he shared a humorous anecdote which had arisen in another trial. On appeal, Nixon's cites the trial judge's action as error. While there is no doubt that there can be no graver proceeding than when a human being is put on trial for his life, see Fuselier v. State, 468 So.2d 45, 53 (Miss. 1985), the judge's minor attempt at levity in the preliminary stages of the trial seems much more geared toward easing the jurors' tensions over sequestration than detracting from the solemnity of the occasion. There is no merit to this assignment of error. See Buckelew v. United States, 575 F.2d 515, 519 (5th Cir.1978) (Telling of jokes by trial judge did not render trial fundamentally unfair where introduction of evidence was not thwarted.)