Court Opinion

ID: 9751343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:21:22.661065+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:43.106957
License: Public Domain

POMEROY, Justice
(concurring).
I agree that under the circumstances shown by this record the trial court committed no abuse of discretion in *322refusing to declare a mistrial and in refusing to strike the testimony of the witness Scott. I therefore concur in the order of affirmance. I add this separate statement because I cannot accept the Court’s purported holding that no waiver of a discovered sequestration violation occurs when counsel deliberately delays making a motion for mistrial on such grounds until he has concluded his cross-examination of the witness as to whom the violation occurred. This portion of the Court’s opinion is in the teeth of the express provision of Rule 1118(b) of our Rules of Criminal Procedure, which provides as follows:
When an event prejudicial to the defendant occurs during trial only the defendant may move for a mistrial ; the motion shall be made -when the event is disclosed. Otherwise, the trial judge may declare a mistrial only for reasons of manifest necessity. (Emphasis supplied)
The mandatory aspect of the time when mistrial motions are to be made is manifest. The rule is not to be followed or ignored with impunity, as trial counsel chooses, depending on the nature of the episode which gives rise to the claim of mistrial. If a mistrial motion is timely made and granted, that, of course, is an end to the matter. If the motion is denied, cross-examination may then be carried on to completion with assurance that the court’s ruling will afford ground for a new trial if discretion is found to have been abused. I am unable to perceive the “impossible choice” with which the Court states defense counsel was presented in this case.
NIX, J., joins in this concurring opinion.