Court Opinion

ID: 9608574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:14:51.824939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:46.593175
License: Public Domain

Hunt, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent to Division 2 of the opinion and to the judgment of reversal. According to the majority, although the trial court acted within its discretion in denying a motion for mistrial upon the testimony of Sandra Collie concerning King’s previous incarceration, such a denial was an abuse of discretion insofar as the same testimony of Detective Meadows was concerned. That is, because of the perceived arrogance of Detective Meadows, in circumventing the trial court’s exclusion of this testimony, the trial court either abused its discretion in choosing inquiry of and instructions to the jury instead of mistrial, or the trial court simply had no discretion to exercise under these circumstances.
I disagree for three reasons. First, the trial court was extremely thorough in its instructions to the jury concerning this patently irrelevant (and marginally harmful) evidence and asked for and received a commitment from the jurors that this evidence would not interfere with their deliberations.
Second, King produced three good-character witnesses whose testimony inevitably yielded the very evidence King complains of, and would have whether or not the detective offered it. Even certified copies of the convictions which resulted in King’s previous incarceration were produced by the state as a result of this character evidence.
Third, the evidence of King’s guilt of murder as opposed to acquittal, or even to a lesser degree of homicide, was so overwhelming that it would not admit of any other verdict.