Court Opinion

ID: 9721717
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:06:22.682276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:26.623388
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion
Jackson, J.
The majority opinion discusses adequately, determines correctly, adversely to the appellant, on the doctrine of stare decisis, the questions relative to instructions raised in the case at bar. I point out, that one who perpetrates a murder with malicious premeditation, pursuant to a carefully thought out, coldly calculated and executed plan is entitled to instructions on murder in the second degree and voluntary and involuntary manslaughter, while one who kills, even accidently, in the attempt or consummation of one of the proscribed offenses is denied such instructions. The distinction is illogical.
*640Appellant also contends that prejudicial error occurred in the closing argument by the prosecuting attorney. In view of the question raised, the entire statement as embraced in the motion for a new trial is set out in full below as follows:
“She (referring to the wife of the victum [victim]) is pregnant with with (sic) her husband gone ... We have tried several murder cases. We are starting another one a week from Monday. None of them are this bad. There can be nothing worse than this one. This is as bad as you can get; this is deliberate and cold blooded snuffing out of some innocent person’s life for money to go out and drink beer on ... A continued rampage of crimes and felonies from that time forward. Finally they are caught down here on [one] night. Thay [they] had to shoot them to catch them. There is no mercy here. We qualified you folks in respect to the death penalty because something must be done. Unless something is done — if theses [these] people are allowed to escape this henious [heinous] offense we are inviting everey [every] hood in the State of Indiana into our home. If these people don’t go to the electric chair nobody will ever go to the electric chair— everybody all over this state will know that you just won’t be sent to the electric chair in Delaware County. You cant’ [can’t] do anything bad enough to get sent there in Delaware County. They are here now and they are watching . . . Criminal trials, ladies and gentlemen, are many times distinguished by fireworks, numerous objections and battles. The tide shifts back and forth across the court room. First one side and then the other, like a chess game. This is not such a trial. The defense had no pieces to play with here. There is no defense. They knew it. They tried the case in that light. They reconized [recognized] that the only possible way — the only possible defense of either of these two cases is that in some how or other talk the jury, browbeat the jury, into protecting a couple of confessed killers — they are nothing but that — they confessed to you under oath right here on the *641stand that they deliberately set out and took a man’s life just take his money — they hadn’t been out of the penitentiary 90 days either one of them when they did it . . . That’s why we need the death penalty in this case. Even now as we stand day after day hearing it there is evidence, as Mr. Benadum alluded to himself Captain Thomas and some others are now out trying to find the next one. Who’s next — is it you or me? Protection is the essential quality here. We must override the individual interests of Mr. Line and Mr. Dull. What we must do is set an example in Delaware County that we are going to protect the people in this county — their lives and their liberty, and put people on notice here and all other places, that if you come to Delaware County and kill somebody, get ready for this final and complete and ultimate penalty.”
The majority opinion, citing civil cases as authority, makes the point that a duty devolved upon the appellant or his counsel to promptly object to the alleged improper comment, and to make a record thereof at the time, and that failure to do so promptly constitutes a waiver of the objectionable statement. It is, I think, a matter of common knowledge among trial lawyers that the situation delineated here presents one of the most difficult facets in the defense of a criminal case. Often, as here, there is feeling and prejudice concerning the defendant’s conduct and his right to a fair trial, etc. Under such circumstances whatever is done in behalf of the defendant by way of objection tends to antagonize the jury.
The matter in issue was, in my opinion, properly brought to the attention of the trial court, and is here in the record by the motion for a new trial and its inclusion in the assignment of errors.
It is further my opinion that, in this case, any reasonable man must inevitably conclude that the closing *642arguments of the prosecuting attorney improperly appealed to the passions, prejudices and emotions of the jury by remarks concerning matters outside the record and not germane to the issues before the jury. In such case a pressing duty devolved upon the trial court sua sponte to admonish the jury to disregard the inflamatory and prejudicial remarks of the prosecuting attorney, and that duty was paramount to any rule of procedure that attempts to place that burden upon the defendant.
The judgment of the trial court should be reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to grant appellant’s motion for a new trial.
Note. — Reported in 180 N. E. 2d 523.