Court Opinion

ID: 9582535
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:28:28.326182+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:56.012069
License: Public Domain

Nichols, Presiding Judge,
dissenting. Special ground numbered 4 of the amended motion for new trial is as follows: “4. Because the court erroneously overruled the defendant’s motion for mistrial on the grounds that the solicitor general’s argument to the jury was improper. Said motion having been made as follows: ‘By Mr. Moore: I have an objection, Your Honor, in behalf of the defendant I move for a mistrial on the grounds of improper argument on behalf of the solicitor. By the Court: I overrule the objection.’ Movant contends the motion was directed to the following remarks of the Solicitor General, in substance, although the specific remarks objected to were not called to the attention of the court during the trial [Italics ours] to wit: (1) The defendant had gone to Decatur Street in Atlanta and gotten rebellious ideas; (2) Negroes should stop imitating us and do what they can do best; (3) Defendant should be proud of his race; (4) some white people can’t say Negro so they say something in between Negro and Nigger, nigra; and (5) how he (the solicitor) wished he could sing and dance *411like they do. Further because the court erroneously overruled the defendant’s renewed motion for mistrial on the grounds of improper argument at the close of the solicitor’s argument to the jury. Said motion having been made as follows: ‘By Mr. Moore: I renew the motion for mistrial on the grounds of improper argument to the jury. The Court: I overrule your motion.’ As defendant contends, said argument of the solicitor general was, and is, highly prejudicial to the right of the defendant to a fair and impartial trial before his peers and was designed, intended and calculated to deprive the defendant of a fair and impartial trial in violation of Article 1, paragraph III, Section 1, Constitution of the State of Georgia of 1945 and of Section 1, Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, even though no objection raising constitutional issues, was made during the trial.” The order of the trial court overruling such ground of the motion stated: “During arguments to the jury the court was engaged in preparing instructions for the jury and did not hear the statements alleged to have been made by the solicitor general, as set forth in the fourth special ground of the motion.”
“This court has frequently held that where counsel make unauthorized and improper statements in their arguments before juries, opposing counsel should call attention to the same and either move for a mistrial or request the court to instruct the fury to disregard such statements. As instances in point, see Young v. State, 65 Ga. 528; Ozburn v. State, 87 Ga. 173; Edwards v. State, 90 Ga. 143; Croom v. State, Ibid. 430; Metropolitan Street R. Co. v. Johnson, Ibid. 500; Farmer v. State, 91 Ga. 728; Von Pollnitz v. State, 92 Ga. 16; Augusta Railway Co. v. Glover, Ibid. 133; Robinson v. Stevens, 93 Ga. 539; Morris & Co. v. Maddox, 97 Ga. 581; Gress Lumber Co. v. Coody, 99 Ga. 779; Kearney v. State, 101 Ga. 804-5; Smalls v. State, 102 Ga. 35.” Bowens v. State, 106 Ga. 760, 764 (32 SE 666). (Emphasis supplied) . The motion for mistrial made during the argument by the solicitor general did not call the remark to the attention of the trial court but had the effect of attacking all of the argument of the solicitor general. Such objection was insufficient.
1. The trial court in approving such ground stated that he did not hear the remarks and, as has been often said, “When *412an exception is taken to alleged improper remarks of the solicitor general in the argument of the case, and the court qualifies it by the statement that he did not hear the remarks, and, therefore, cannot say whether the ground is true or not, this leaves the ground unapproved and prevents its consideration by this court.” Lewis v. State, 7 Ga. App. 56 (4) (65 SE 1072); Jones v. State, 25 Ga. App. 403 (2) (103 SE 472). Accordingly, the trial court did not err in overruling this ground of the motion for new trial.
2. The opinion of the trial court shows that the objections made were not complete in that they attacked the whole argument of the solicitor general and were properly overruled if any part thereof was proper.
3. Even if the special ground of the motion for new trial be treated as having been approved by the trial court such an approval relates to allegations of fact and not the contentions of the movant, Clifton v. State, 187 Ga. 502, 509 (2 SE2d 102) and citations, Reid v. Bryant, 100 Ga. App. 105 (3) (110 SE2d 571) and citations, and where the ground merely contends that an objection was directed at certain language of the solicitor general but fails to allege as fact approved by the trial court that the objection was actually made to the particular argument such ground cannot be considered.
4. The special ground of the motion for new trial states that the motion for mistrial was overruled but it does not state that the trial court did or did not rebuke the solicitor general and direct him to confine his argument to relevant matter. In Moran v. State, 71 Ga. App. 670 (31 SE2d 834), it was held that a ground of a motion for mistrial which did not show whether the solicitor general had been rebuked was incomplete.
For each of the above four reasons the special ground of the amended motion for new trial, complaining of the failure to grant a mistrial, shows no reversible error.
I am authorized to say that Felton, C. J., Frankum and Panned, JJ., concur in this dissent.