Court Opinion

ID: 9694977
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:02:32.053208+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.354664
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
I write specially to question the majority’s assertion that Blaine stands for the proposi*95tion that “[cjommunity conscience arguments are clearly improper.” In State v. Blaine, 427 N.W.2d 113 (S.D.1988), the state’s attorney made arguments to the jury that were not based on the evidence. Blaine was stopped by a police officer who observed his vehicle weaving back and forth down the road. In cross-examination and closing argument, the prosecutor hypothesized about what would have happened had a small child run into Blaine’s path and asked the jury to put themselves in the shoes of a possible victim. Three members of this court found those arguments warranted reversal for prosecutorial misconduct.
In this case, the prosecutor was making an argument based upon evidence presented to the jury — Stetter’s drinking, blood alcohol content, speeding, driving on the wrong side of the road without lights and the consequences of the accident itself — not a community conscience argument. See United States v. Johnson, 968 F.2d 768, 771 (8th Cir.1992); United States v. Lee, 743 F.2d 1240, 1253 (8th Cir.1984) (stating a community conscience argument is “an emotional appeal calculated to persuade the jury to decide the case on other than the facts before it ”) (emphasis added).
Further, in my opinion, all community conscience arguments are not prohibited. “Unless calculated to inflame, an appeal to the jury to act as the conscience of the community is not impermissible[.]” United States v. Lewis, 547 F.2d 1030, 1037 (8th Cir.1976), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1111, 97 S.Ct. 1149, 51 L.Ed.2d 566 (1977); Johnson, 968 F.2d at 770; United States v. Brown, 887 F.2d 537, 542 (5th Cir.1989).