Court Opinion

ID: 9589915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:50:13.820209+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:22.597295
License: Public Domain

*781Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in the judgment because the court’s failure to further chastise the prosecuting attorney’s improper argument or add further to its jury instruction at the time did not deprive defendant of a fair trial. Fulfillment of the court’s duty, codified in OCGA § 17-8-75, was incomplete at that stage.
There is no question that the state’s attorney spoke outside the broad parameters of permissible closing argument when he turned to commentary on defendant’s counsel. It was totally irrelevant to the issue of defendant’s guilt or innocence and focused on the wrong person, whose professional involvement in the case had nothing to do with the acts with which defendant was charged. The state’s attorney started this deviation by saying they were friends and that he was invited to counsel’s wedding the next weekend, but then he turned to the attack on counsel’s role, motive, and lack of responsibility for consequences of acquittal. Defendant’s counsel objected, explained as his ground that this was mischaracterization of defense counsel and of the law, and said “thank you.” No particular relief was requested, and no motion for mistrial was made.
Argument resumed along the same line, and again defendant’s counsel objected, this time asking for a ruling. The court instructed the jury that it “may draw logical conclusions and deductions from the evidence that is presented,” as it likewise instructed the jury when objection was made to another argument that similarly was not based on evidence. Defendant did not seek additional rectification.
In its charge to the jury immediately following the closing arguments, the court repeated and elaborated on that instruction. It paired the indictment with the plea of not guilty and explained that they were not evidence. It defined evidence and differentiated between direct and circumstantial evidence. It identified what was and what was not evidence, stating: “Evidence includes all the testimony of the witnesses and the exhibits admitted during the trial. It also includes any facts agreed to by counsel. It does not include the indictment, or the opening statements and closing arguments by the attorneys.” Five times, once for each crime of which defendant was accused, the court instructed the jury to decide the issue “after considering the testimony and evidence presented to you together with the charge of the Court.”
Thus, if there was any ambiguity about whether the court’s instruction, given when defendant called a halt to the prosecuting attorney’s improper aspersions, was a remonstrance or an approval, it was removed by the general charge. By it the court repeatedly made clear what the issues were and the basis upon which they were to be decided. There is little doubt that the jury understood that the prosecuting attorney’s remarks were not evidence and, where not *782based on evidence presented during the trial, were not to be factored into their deliberations. The express exclusion of the closing argument from the legitimate bricks and mortar on which factfinding could be built, together with the repeated reminders of what could constitute bricks and mortar, eliminated any error committed by the court at the time defendant sought the court’s intervention.