Court Opinion

ID: 9773800
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:59:16.940622+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:57.918236
License: Public Domain

LIMBAUGH, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Although I agree that the trial judge erred by sustaining the State’s objection to a conclusion made by defense counsel in closing argument, I would hold that the error was not so prejudicial as to warrant a new trial.
Despite its acknowledgment of “ample evidence” to support the verdict of guilty, the majority holds that there would have been a “reasonable likelihood” of a verdict of not guilty had the objection to defense counsel’s time line argument been overruled. To arrive at that holding, the majority necessarily finds that a reasonable likelihood exists not only that the jury would have agreed with defense counsel’s hotly contested conclusion about the time line evidence, but also that the jury would have disbelieved the State’s potent blood and confession evidence. The record simply does not support that conclusion. In finding prejudicial error, the majority has misapplied the “reasonable likelihood” standard so that reversal is triggered not by the reasonable likelihood of a different result but rather by the mere possibility of a different result.
This misapplication is due, in large part, to the majority’s focus on a single, isolated ruling in closing argument, as if it was the turning point of the trial, to the exclusion of the closing argument as a whole. In the recitation of the facts, the majority neglected to divulge the comment made by defense counsel to the jury immediately after the objection in question was sustained. Defense counsel stated: “Between the twelve of you you will remember the evidence. You will be able to put the times.” To this statement there was neither objection from the prosecutor nor admonition from the judge. As such, defense counsel was able to rehabilitate the argument that the time line evidence showed that it was extremely unlikely that defendant was present when the murder was committed and that the prosecutor, at the very least, was having to stretch the time line evidence to implicate the defendant.
In addition, the majority disregards the fact that pursuing the time line defense was *789not defense counsel’s predominant strategy. In fact, the 21-page transcript of defense counsel’s closing argument contains just one-half page on the time line argument. Instead, defense counsel concentrated almost exclusively on the two major efforts of the defense: 1) to rebut the evidence of the victim’s blood on the defendant’s clothing; and 2) to rebut the testimony of three inmates to whom the defendant had supposedly confessed. Except for the objection in question, defense counsel was not prohibited from pursuing the time line argument more fully, but instead chose to pursue what were apparently thought to be more compelling arguments. That strategy makes sense because, as the prosecutor aptly pointed out in his own closing argument, the time line evidence benefits the State at least as much, if not more, than it benefits the defendant. By all accounts, that evidence places the defendant in the victim’s apartment at or within just a few minutes of the time the murder had to have occurred. Moreover, given the short time period involved, between 3 to 3:15 P.M. and 4 P.M., and in view of the evidence that the murderer took sufficient time to stab the victim 37 times, cut her throat, carve Xs on her torso and then wash up in the bathroom, it is hardly conceivable that anyone but the defendant could have committed the crime.
In applying the reasonable likelihood standard, the majority also discounts the strength of the State’s case and gives too much credence to the evidence presented by the defendant. As noted, the State’s evidence placed the defendant in the victim’s apartment at or near the time the murder occurred, showed conclusively that the victim’s blood was found on the defendant’s clothing, and established that defendant confessed to three other inmates. In most cases, this evidence would be characterized as overwhelming. According to the majority, however, the defendant effectively diluted the State’s case, not only by his own interpretation of the time line evidence, but also by explaining that the bloodstains on his clothing resulted from his presence at the scene of the crime after the body was discovered, and by impeaching the credibility of the three inmates with evidence of their prior offenses and the prospect of more lenient punishment.
In my view, the impact of defendant’s arguments, especially on the blood evidence, would have been slight. As discussed above, the time line evidence plays better for the State than the defendant. Furthermore, defendant’s explanation for the blood on his clothing is far-fetched at best. Blood stains were found on defendant’s shirt as well as his jeans, and a droplet of blood had spattered on one of his boots. According to defendant’s own account, he came into contact with the victim’s blood by doing nothing more than pulling the granddaughter, Ms. Selvedge, away from her grandmother’s body as it laid on the bedroom floor. Significantly, the defendant leaves unanswered the question why Ms. Selvidge, the person closest to the body and the one most likely to have blood on her clothes, had none at all! Finally, the impeachment of the three inmates was offset by their testimony about peculiar details of the crime that they could not realistically have obtained from any source other .than the defendant himself.
On this record, it is unreasonable to conclude that the case turned on the trial court’s ruling in closing argument. To reiterate: 1) defense counsel was able to make the point about the time line evidence despite the court’s ruling and, in any event, the primary key to the defense was to refute the blood and confession evidence rather than to press the time line argument; and 2) the overall strength of the State’s case would have won the day even if the error in closing argument had not occurred.
For these reasons, I dissent.