Court Opinion

ID: 9644688
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:01:57.86014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:50:26.473067
License: Public Domain

DOUGLAS, Judge
(dissenting).
The majority reverses this conviction because of the prosecutor’s remarks concerning the difference in the number of years appellant could receive for murder as opposed to voluntary manslaughter. The record shows that the jury was instructed not to consider any argument concerning the number of years. The error, if any, in the prosecutor’s remarks is harmless as the jury is not required to leave its common sense at home. The average person is aware that murder carries a greater penalty than voluntary manslaughter. The lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter was discussed with the jury during voir dire as a second degree felony while murder was referred to as a first degree felony. Would not reasonable minds know that one carried a greater penalty than the other?
The prosecutor should not have continued the line of argument after the court had instructed the jury not to consider it. However, the repetition of nothing still amounts to nothing, or zero plus zero equals zero.
No reversible error has been shown. The judgment should be affirmed.