Court Opinion

ID: 9785346
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:22:51.520706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:17.034798
License: Public Domain

McAnany, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur with the majority that this case must be reversed and remanded. Because Pruitt objected to the Allen instruction, State v. Salts, 288 Kan. 263, Syl. ¶ 2, 200 P.3d 464 (2009), requires that we do so. However, I would not reverse based upon the other claimed trial errors or based upon a cumulative error analysis.
The question to and answer of Officer Keiss about prior knowledge of Pruitt violated the order in limine but, in my view, did not “reveal to the jury that Pruitt had been a suspect in another criminal incident” as the majority finds. Persons other than criminal suspects have contact with the police. Pruitt may have been a citizen reporting a crime, a witness, or a victim of crime himself. He may have had contact with the police in some other capacity. The question and Keiss’ answer did not identify Pruitt as a past criminal suspect. I would not find that this testimony affected the outcome of the trial.
*179The questioning of Keiss about Pruitt’s post-Miranda silence is clearly a Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976), violation. But given the court’s curative instruction, I would not find that it affected the results of the trial. To the contrary, it apparently did not, given the jury’s rejection of Keiss’ description of his struggle with Pruitt. The jury acquitted Pruitt of battery.
The rejection of Pruitt’s proffered photos clearly was erroneous. However, it did not prejudice Pruitt. It did not affect the outcome of the trial. The photos demonstrated Pruitt’s injuries. Pruitt claimed he struggled against Keiss when Keiss put him in a headlock and cut off his airway. The photos confirmed this. Though the jurors did not have the photos, they acquitted Pruitt of the claimed battery of Keiss during the struggle.
The mere accumulation of otherwise nonprejudicial errors does not warrant reversal under a cumulative error analysis unless, collectively, they denied the defendant a fair trial. Pruitt fails to convince me that these errors rise to that level.