Court Opinion

ID: 9561724
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:14:46.433627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:17.967143
License: Public Domain

FINNEY, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
After jury selection had begun, the solicitor handed the defense attorneys 479 pages of new discovery materials. Three times the attorneys asked for a twenty-four hour continuance to allow them to review the materials, and three times the judge denied their request, finally giving them approximately five and a half hours, during which time they also needed to prepare their opening statement, and eat lunch. When the time expired, and the case was called for trial, the attorneys understandably did not renew their request. The majority finds in the failure to continue to argue with the judge a waiver; I find the issue properly preserved, and that further argument after the ruling had been made would have been improper. Cf., State v. Bryant, 316 S.C. 216, 447 S.E.2d 852 (1994) (where judge admits testimony over objection, counsel is not required to make motion to strike in order to preserve issue for appeal); Rule 17, SCRCrimP (“If an objection has once been made at any stage to the admission of evidence, it shall not be necessary thereafter to reserve rights concerning the objectionable evidence.”); Rule 18(a), SCRCrimP (“Counsel shall not attempt to further argue any matter after he has been heard and the ruling of the court has been pronounced.”).
The denial of a motion for a continuance will be reversed on appeal only if the trial judge clearly abused his discretion. State v. Tanner, 299 S.C. 459, 385 S.E.2d 832 (1989). Where the continuance request is occasioned by the State’s untimely *55compliance with a discovery request, the defendant is entitled to sufficient time to ascertain the full evidentiary value of the evidence. Id. In my opinion, allowing counsel less than one minute per page to review 479 pages of discovery materials such as DNA reports and hospital evaluations of appellant’s mental condition is a patent abuse of discretion. This is especially so in this capital case in which the trial had already been delayed two years. Compare State v. Patterson, 290 S.C. 523, 351 S.E.2d 853 (1986) (subsequent history omitted) (no reversible error where defense counsel allowed to listen to prosecution witness’s taped statement before her direct testimony, and cross-examination postponed until the next day); State v. Lunsford, 318 S.C. 241, 456 S.E.2d 918 (Ct.App.1995) (overnight and long lunch recess to review five page statement and short “proffer” not reversible error where judge also offered appellant “as much time as he thought he needed”). That appellant cannot point with any precision to the prejudice he suffered is the inevitable consequence of the insufficient time afforded to him for review of these largely technical documents.
Further, I would hold that where a defendant’s request for a jury charge is denied in a pre-charge conference, he need not renew that request after the charge is omitted from the jury instructions in order to preserve the issue for appellate review. Rogers v. Florence Printing Co., 233 S.C. 567, 106 S.E.2d 258 (1958); cf., State v. Grant, 275 S.C. 404, 272 S.E.2d 169 (1980). I therefore disagree with the majority’s conclusion in Part 6 that appellant has failed to preserve his jury charge requests. On the merits, it is well-settled that the failure to give the “plain meaning” charge as appellant requested is reversible error. State v. Davis, 306 S.C. 246, 411 S.E.2d 220 (1991). This error mandates a new sentencing proceeding.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent, and would reverse and remand for a new trial.