Court Opinion

ID: 9760892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:21:46.378751+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:18.293176
License: Public Domain

ASHWORTH, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the holdings and in the opinion. However, I strongly feel that the prosecuting attorney should be chastised for obvious improper argument; first with regard to voir dire statements concerning failure of the defendants to testify, and secondly in argument that appellant was sorry that he did not kill Officer Fuentes. We are correct in holding that error was not properly preserved by appellant as to the voir dire statements, but at this early stage of the trial, it is my belief that a mistrial should have been declared to emphasize to the prosecuting attorney the error of his statement and to possibly deter him from further prosecution error, which he in fact later committed in argument.
*199The prosecutor’s argument that appellant was sorry that he had not killed Officer Fuentes clearly was improper, and we have so held although we also held that it was not such as to deprive appellant of a fair and proper trial. I feel that we have strained the limits of appellate review in order to overcome prosecutorial misconduct. It appears that the bounds of argument are continually being stretched to the limit. While we are correct in our assessment of the errors in this case, such conduct should be censured.