Court Opinion

ID: 9680268
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:27:51.362559+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:27.305780
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. I believe the remarks of the prosecuting attorney set out in the majority opinion are clearly prejudicial. It is exactly the same as the “Golden Rule” argument which we hold to be prejudicial in civil cases. The prosecutor’s statement told each juror to consider the facts from the view that they had a gun pointed at them by desperate individuals who might kill them. This certainly is improper, in my opinion. The statement concerning parole was likewise prejudicial. The exact statement was: Now, these convictions range over a period of time since 1971. This being 1981, it’s ten years. Over a ten year period, Michael Abraham, if you put all of these sentences together, 38, 48, 58, actually has been sentenced to over sixty years imprisonment. And, apparently, since he’s out, has done all right, been paroled. The above statement was not true according to the court’s response to the objection to the prosecutor’s remark: There’s an argument here that he’s out and we know that’s not so. But it would probably have been prejudicial to raise it then if you want to tell him that he’s in the penitentiary on this 38 years. The parole possibility was mentioned in Andrews v. State, 251 Ark. 279, 472 S.W. 2d 86 (1971), and there we stated: ... we have concluded that this information should not be given the jury, and when asked for such information, the court should reply, in effect, that it is improper for the court to answer the inquiry, and an answer might well constitute reversible error; that the jury need not concern itself with the matter; that the control of the parole system is committed by law to the legislative and executive branches of the government. . . . After the prosecutor made the untrue remarks about appellant being on parole, the defense counsel had to choose between telling the jury that his client was still in the penitentiary or allowing the remark to stand with the jury being under the false impression that he was on parole.