Allison v. State

724 So. 2d 1014, 1998 WL 881761
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 18, 1998
Docket97-KA-00476 COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 724 So. 2d 1014 (Allison v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allison v. State, 724 So. 2d 1014, 1998 WL 881761 (Mich. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

724 So.2d 1014 (1998)

Louis ALLISON, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 97-KA-00476 COA

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

December 18, 1998.

*1016 Nathan Henry Elmore, Robert M. Ryan, Thomas M. Fortner, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Pat S. Flynn, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, P.J., DIAZ AND PAYNE, JJ.

McMILLIN, P.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Louis Allison was convicted of the forcible rape of RM, a former girlfriend. He has appealed raising two issues. We conclude that the issues are without merit and, therefore, affirm Allison's conviction.

I.

Facts

¶ 2. This case presents a classic instance of two people relating substantially different versions of events that occurred at a time when they were the only witnesses to those events. We will begin with the version related by the victim, who testified on behalf of the State.

*1017 A.

RM's Version of Events

¶ 3. RM was enticed to Allison's residence by representations that she had left certain items at the residence prior to the breakup of their romance. She went in the company of a female companion who waited in the car while RM reluctantly agreed to go into the house to retrieve whatever items Allison had called about. Once inside the house, Allison locked the door and became belligerent and threatening, suggesting that he would kill both RM and her companion. He physically assaulted her and forced her to disrobe and don a tee-shirt that had some prior significance in their relationship. In an effort to extricate her friend from danger, RM persuaded Allison to take the friend back home. All three individuals made the trip, and RM feigned her willingness to go back home with Allison in order to get her friend safely from Allison's range of control. Once back at Allison's home, Allison began a bizarre game with her that he called "three strikes," which involved him asking her a series of questions. If her answer to a question was unsatisfactory, she would receive "one strike." If she "struck out," Allison announced his intention to kill her. His first question involved an inquiry as to the identity of other men with whom she had recently been intimately involved. When she replied that there were none, Allison struck her a blow to the head. The physical assault continued and Allison forced her to engage in unwanted sexual intercourse.

¶ 4. Ultimately, it was discovered that she was bleeding from her vaginal area due to the forced sexual activity and Allison drove her to a hospital emergency room. Once within the safety of the examining room, RM reported the rape to hospital personnel and the police were summoned. Upon arrival, the officers arrested Allison as he waited in a waiting area and charged him with the crime of rape.

B.

Allison's Version of Events

¶ 5. Though he and RM were having some difficulties in their relationship, he was interested in trying to reconcile. He bought her a present, which he testified was a sexually provocative outfit commonly referred to as a "g-string" that RM could use in her work as an exotic dancer. Once she saw the gift, she decided to try it on and model it for Allison, which resulted in them both becoming sexually aroused. They engaged in an act of consensual sex, after which RM donned a tee-shirt and they both went out to take home RM's friend, who had been waiting in the car. After dropping off the friend, the couple returned to Allison's house where RM permitted Allison to make several photographs of her in the g-string outfit. They also engaged in additional acts of consensual sex.

¶ 6. When it was discovered that RM was bleeding in the vaginal area, the couple became concerned that she was having a miscarriage since there was some suspicion, though unconfirmed, that she might have been pregnant at the time. The discussion of her possible pregnancy led to an argument which became quite heated when the subject arose that, if she were pregnant, Allison might not be the father. Allison became so incensed that he physically assaulted her, but later regained his composure and took her to hospital to have the bleeding checked out. According to Allison's theory of the case, RM simply concocted the story of rape at that time in order to gain retribution for his admitted acts of physical abuse that followed the argument over her possible pregnancy.

II.

The First Issue: Denial of a Fundamentally Fair Trial

¶ 7. Allison urges that he was denied a fundamentally fair trial because the trial court repeatedly sustained the State's objections to evidence that was vital to flesh out his theory of the case, i.e., that RM had wrongfully claimed that the admitted acts of sexual intercourse were nonconsensual when, in fact, they were freely consented to by her. In advancing this point, Allison details fourteen separate evidentiary rulings by the trial court that he claims, in the aggregate, had the effect of thwarting any chance he had to persuade the jury that his version of the *1018 events was the correct one. Allison suggests that, since the real issue before this Court is the fundamental fairness of the conduct of his trial, rather than an assertion of the erroneous exclusion of some particular piece of evidence, the error rises to the level of constitutional proportions. Thus, he argues, we must assess the trial court's alleged errors under the more rigorous standard of being harmless beyond a reasonable doubt that applies to errors affecting basic constitutional rights. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).

¶ 8. We find this argument unpersuasive. After a review of each of the rulings complained of by the defense, we have concluded that the substantial part of the rulings were not erroneous at all. Others, even if conceded to be erroneous for sake of argument, were on minor points or related to issues that were fully developed for the jury's consideration through other means. An item-by-item analysis of each of the rulings at this point would only serve to distract from our discussion of the broader error the appellant asserts. However, in order to avoid the appearance that we have simply brushed over this issue, we have elected to briefly highlight each ruling in an appendix to this opinion.

¶ 9. The appellant seems to suggest that these rulings, when considered together, show a pattern that demonstrates the trial court's intention to thwart the appellant's efforts to fairly present his defense to the jury.

¶ 10. Without belaboring this point further, we conclude that these rulings by the trial court did not, by any stretch, rise to the level of prejudice necessary to deny Allison a fundamentally fair trial. A trial court, during the course of a vigorously contested criminal trial, is called upon to make countless rulings on evidence and to regulate the conduct of the attorneys appearing in the case. This is a most difficult job and often requires an almost instantaneous decision on what may be a close question of law. In recognition of this fact, the law does not hold the trial court to a standard of perfection, and a criminal defendant has no right to demand such perfection in the conduct of his trial. Peterson v. State, 671 So.2d 647, 655-56 (Miss.1996).

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Bluebook (online)
724 So. 2d 1014, 1998 WL 881761, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allison-v-state-missctapp-1998.