Court Opinion

ID: 9847300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:57:25.61834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:06.614864
License: Public Domain

SINGLETON, Judge,
dissenting.
Whether to grant or deny a motion for mistrial is a matter committed to the trial court’s sound discretion. Lewis v. State, 452 P.2d 892 (Alaska 1969), Roth v. State, 626 P.2d 583 (Alaska App.1981). Where the state moves for mistrial and the defendant opposes the motion, the trial court must find “manifest necessity” before granting the mistrial. Lewis, 452 P.2d at 895-96. It is not necessary, however, that the trial court utter the magic phrase “manifest necessity.” Arizona v. Washington, 434 U.S. 497, 98 S.Ct. 824, 54 L.Ed.2d 717 (1978). In context, “manifest necessity” means that the prosecution has suffered prejudicial error as a result of the defendant’s actions and the prejudice cannot be cured by a continuance or an admonition to the jury. If the trial court finds prejudicial error and further finds that a continuance or admonition would be insufficient to cure the error, then “manifest necessity” has been established, a mistrial may be ordered and the defendant may be tried again. Since the trial judge is present and has the opportunity to observe the alleged error’s impact upon the jury, we should not substitute our judgment for that of the trial court’s. Rather, we should apply an abuse of discretion standard, and determine whether a reasonable judge could have concluded on the record that prejudicial error had been suffered and that a continuance or admonition would have been insufficient to correct the prejudice.
*271Applying this test to the undisputed facts of this case, it is clear that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a mistrial. It is clearly error for a witness to refer to possible punishment in connection with his testimony. See Martin v. State, 664 P.2d 612, 618-19 (Alaska App.1983). In context, Browning’s testimony was a blatant plea for sympathy. It is unlikely that a continuance could have cured the problem. The question then becomes whether a jury admonition would have been sufficient. Under the circumstances this was a decision for the trial court to make. We are hardly in a position to recreate from a cold record the circumstances as they existed at the time the trial court ruled. This ease, like others in a disturbing series,1 illustrates again this court’s penchant for substituting its judgment for that of the trial court in reviewing matters committed to trial court discretion. In so doing, the court loses sight of the proper boundaries between trial and appellate courts and passes beyond the realm of its expertise. I would affirm the decision of the trial court.

. See, e.g., Johnson v. Fairbanks, 703 P.2d 442, (Alaska App.1985) (Singleton, J., dissenting); Jackson v. State, 695 P.2d 227, 233-37 (Alaska App.1985) (Singleton, J., dissenting); William-ion v. State, 692 P.2d 965, 974 n. 1 (Alaska App.1984) (Singleton, J., dissenting); and see generally Wright, The Doubtful Omniscience of Appellate Courts, 41 Minn.L.Rev. 751 (1957).