Manning v. State

835 So. 2d 94, 2002 WL 31656701
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedNovember 26, 2002
Docket2001-KA-00627-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 835 So. 2d 94 (Manning 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
Manning v. State, 835 So. 2d 94, 2002 WL 31656701 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

835 So.2d 94 (2002)

Robert MANNING, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2001-KA-00627-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

November 26, 2002.

*96 Phillip Broadhead, Jackson, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Jeffrey A. Klingfuss, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, P.J., LEE and IRVING, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the court.

¶ 1. Robert Manning was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hinds County Circuit Court. In his appeal to this Court, he asserts the following assignments of error: (1) the State examined the venire to pledge a specific verdict, (2) the State was allowed to re-open voir dire to ask a question which commented upon Manning's right to remain silent, (3) one of the State's witnesses was allowed to give an improper lay opinion, (4) the trial court erred in refusing to grant an instruction on self-defense, (5) the prosecutor made an improper closing argument, and (6) the verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence and insufficient as a matter of law.

¶ 2. Finding no reversible error, this Court affirms.

FACTS

¶ 3. Robert Manning and Louise Hilliard had lived together, off and on, for a number of years. On the day that Hilliard was killed, and prior to the discovery of her body, Manning voluntarily surrendered to authorities at the Jackson Police Department. He gave a taped confession in which he admitted shooting Hilliard but gave conflicting accounts of how the shooting occurred. At one point in the confession, Manning claimed to have acted in self-defense, while at another he claimed that Hilliard was shot accidentally as the two of them struggled for possession of the gun. The medical testimony contradicted both of these claims.

¶ 4. The medical testimony was that Hilliard was shot twice. One bullet entered the rear of her right forearm, exited the front of her forearm, and lodged in her hip. The other bullet entered her back and lodged in her sternum. The gunshot to the back produced the fatal wound. Manning did not testify at trial.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

1. Specific Verdict Pledge from the Venire

¶ 5. Manning argues that the following questioning of the jury panel by the State was an improper jury examination, the aim of which was to extract a pledge from the venire to vote guilty even if the State failed to produce sufficient evidence to undergird a conviction:

PROSECUTOR WEINBERG: Is there anybody who would require the State before you could vote guilty in a murder case to produce eyewitnesses to what happened before you could vote guilty? The law doesn't require me to do that, but would any of you require me to do that?
*97 DEFENSE COUNSEL FORTNER: Objection, Your Honor. It's not appropriate for the prosecutor to tell the jury what the law requires or does not require him to do. That's a question for the Judge to instruct the jury on.
WEINBERG: May I rephrase Your Honor, to get their response to whether or not they would require more than—would require eyewitnesses, independent eyewitnesses, which is all I'm trying to do here?
THE COURT: All right. I'll let you ask that one.
WEINBERG: Let me just make sure I get your responses if there are any. Is there anyone here—and I ask you to raise your hand, if you would—who would require me to produce independent eyewitnesses to what happened before you could vote guilty on a murder charge? If so, raise your hand, please.
* * * * * *
WEINBERG: Is there anybody here who feels like you would have to have some particular type of scientific proof that absolutely nails this case shut before you could vote guilty?
FORTNER: We're going to object to that question, Your Honor. The Court is to instruct the jury on what proof is required and what elements are required. The jury can't be placed in a position of making some promise about how they would render or reach a verdict or what evidence they would or would not require. That's an improper question.
WEINBERG: Your Honor, it's not improper to ask them about their attitude toward whether or not they would require scientific proof. Under De La Beckwith, that case that I've cited to Your Honor before, I'm entitled to ask that question.
THE COURT: All right. Overruled.

¶ 6. Manning argues that "the major problem presented by the [S]tate's voir dire examination is that the persistent extraction of a pledge to find guilt without certain facts in evidence would tend to encourage jurors not to follow the instructions of the court." A verdict, he claims, "could possibly be reached without the jury having followed the law of the case as instructed by the trial judge." Manning further contends that the error committed by the trial court in allowing the State's voir dire examination "is of constitutional dimension as it impacts on his fundamental right to a fair trial by a fair and impartial jury." He argues that "prejudice must be presumed by a reviewing court and a harmless error beyond a reasonable doubt review should be accomplished." This Court disagrees.

¶ 7. The standard of review for questions asked on voir dire is abuse of discretion. Hypothetical questions couched in the facts of the particular case asking the venire to pledge a specific verdict are impermissible. Harris v. State, 532 So.2d 602, 606, 607 (Miss.1988). The Mississippi Supreme Court has further instructed that:

Trial courts have a responsibility to control voir dire but in doing so they must take care not to hinder a full exploration of a juror's predispositions, by hypothetical or otherwise. However, [t]he line between a proper and improper question is not always easily drawn; it is manifestly a process in which the trial judge must be given a considerable [amount of] discretion.

Evans v. State, 725 So.2d 613 (¶ 128) (Miss.1997) (citations omitted).

¶ 8. This Court held in Forbes v. State, 771 So.2d 942 (Miss.Ct.App.2000), that it *98 was proper for the State to query prospective jurors about whether a defendant's age would influence their verdict. We found that the prosecutor in that case only sought to highlight for the jurors the proper and improper considerations for determining guilt and innocence when it informed the jury that it would be improper to refuse to find guilt, despite being convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, because of sympathy for a teenaged defendant. Id. at (¶ 18). Similarly, our supreme court found no error occurred when the following question was permitted on voir dire:

With respect to the rape case, would the evidence for you to find somebody guilty of committing rape, would you require the State of Mississippi to prove or require that a victim come in here and say that she resisted until she was beaten to a bloody pulp and seriously injured before you could find someone guilty? We are talking about forcible rape here. I believe force is an element that we are going to have to prove. But would you require a victim resist until she is unconscious, fight and struggle dealing against overwhelming odds?

Simmons v. State, 805 So.2d 452, 504 (¶¶ 146-147) (Miss.2002).

¶ 9. We find that in the case at bar the State was not seeking to secure a pledge from the jurors that they would return a certain verdict given a certain set of facts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
835 So. 2d 94, 2002 WL 31656701, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manning-v-state-missctapp-2002.