Court Opinion

ID: 3298302
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 17:15:23.631758+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:24:50.714594
License: Public Domain

I concur in the opinion of Justice McFarland. I wish to add, however, that, even in cases where a district attorney does persistently attempt to influence a jury by improper questions calculated to produce suspicions and hurtful suggestions, it is the duty of the counsel for the defendant to make timely objection to the court, and the duty of the court thereupon to instruct the jury that such suggestions must be disregarded and that such suspicions must be rejected, and that when such instructions are given it will not be presumed that the jury were influenced by the improper conduct objected to, unless the record shows extraordinary circumstances tending to show that such influence existed notwithstanding *Page 680 
the caution of the court. I think that the language of the opinions in some of the previous decisions of this court goes too far in support of the theory that there is some sort of a presumption that the misconduct of a district attorney will prevail with the jury and influence them in the face of the positive instructions of the court that they must not consider the suggestions thus improperly made. The presumption should always be that a jury has obeyed the instructions of the court, and unless the contrary is shown by the record, that presumption should prevail in the appellate courts.