State v. Holley

877 A.2d 872, 90 Conn. App. 350, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 315
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 19, 2005
DocketAC 25265
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 877 A.2d 872 (State v. Holley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Holley, 877 A.2d 872, 90 Conn. App. 350, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 315 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

Opinion

HARPER, J.

The defendant, Ronnie Holley, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered following a jury trial, of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-70 and assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-61 (a) (l).1 The defendant claims that (1) the prosecutor made [352]*352statements during jury selection that diluted the state’s burden of proof, (2) the trial court delivered an inaccurate instruction concerning reasonable doubt, (3) the court improperly delivered a consciousness of guilt instruction and failed to deliver a consciousness of innocence instruction, and (4) the court improperly precluded the defendant from eliciting certain testimony concerning the victim. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On August 27, 2002, the defendant raped and assaulted his then girlfriend, the victim, in the residence that they shared. The defendant forced the victim, against her physical and verbal protests, to engage in penile-vaginal intercourse with him. During the assault, the defendant used the victim’s necklace to choke her. The defendant also threatened the victim with bodily injury while brandishing large kitchen knives. The victim sustained injuries about her face and neck, as well. The victim fled from the residence after the incident and summoned police assistance. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

I

The defendant first claims that the prosecutor made statements during jury selection that diluted the state’s burden of proof. We disagree.

During jury selection, the prosecutor asked several prospective jurors whether they understood the concept of reasonable doubt. In doing so, the prosecutor typically referred to the state’s burden of proof as a “human burden” of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

The following colloquy between the prosecutor and juror L2 transpired during the fourth day of jury selection:

[353]*353“[The Prosecutor]: Okay. Now, the burden of proof in a criminal case, you have already heard, is proof beyond a reasonable doubt and, what a burden of proof means is, how certain the jury has to be. The judge will give you a complete definition of what proof beyond a reasonable doubt means if you sit as a juror on this case. But one thing it doesn’t mean, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not as high a burden as would be proof beyond all doubt or proof beyond a shadow of a doubt or proof to an absolute certainty. You may have heard this in the movie?

“[L]: Yes, I did.

“[The Prosecutor]: Does that make sense to you that those things are greater than what we have to prove?

“[L]: Yes.

“[The Prosecutor]: And would you also agree with me that, in the real world, when we are dealing with human beings and their interaction with each other, that it’s very rare to prove anything absolutely?

“[L]: Rare to prove anything — anything absolutely?

“[The Prosecutor]: Absolutely beyond any doubt?

“[L]: Well, if you give me a dollar, I know it’s a dollar, so—

“ [The Prosecutor]: Okay. All right. But when you have people who are — who have experienced something and are talking about it, do you often get that absolute black and white that if there’s a dollar, it’s a dollar? You see, what I’m saying is, when you have people working with each other, interacting with each other, it’s not all that common—

“[The Prosecutor]: — right?

[354]*354“[L]: Yeah.

“[The Prosecutor]: And because it’s not all that common, the judge — the jury — the legal system and the judge in this case doesn’t require us to prove things absolutely—

“[The Prosecutor]: — or beyond all doubt?

“[L]: Yes, I understand.

“[The Prosecutor]: There’s a human burden called proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Okay.” (Emphasis added.)

After the parties questioned L, the defendant’s attorney objected to the prosecutor’s use of the phrase “human burden,” which the prosecutor used previously during the examination of several other prospective jurors. The defendant’s attorney argued that the phrase was misleading. The court overruled the objection, and the prosecutor used the phrase during his subsequent examination of several other prospective jurors.

The defendant argues that the prosecutor’s use of the phrase diluted the state’s burden of proof “by inviting jurors to forgive weaknesses in the state’s proof . . . .” The defendant argues that by using that phrase, the prosecutor impermissibly “contrasted] the law’s highest burden of proof with some other sort of proof, some God-like vision of certainty that exists ... in the human minds of those who believe in such things . . . .” The defendant further argues that the prosecutor’s use of the phrase is a “blatant appeal for sympathy” in that it asks the jury to overlook weaknesses in the state’s case because “try as he might, [the prosecutor] must work only with the human stuff at hand.”

“[T]he trial court is vested with broad discretion in determining the scope of counsel's inquiry [during voir [355]*355dire]. . . . The court has a duty to analyze the examination of venire members and to act to prevent abuses in the voir dire process. . . . [T]he court’s actions ordinarily will not be disturbed unless the court has clearly abused its discretion or it appears that prejudice to one of the parties has resulted. . . .

“We have recognized that the purpose of examining members of the venire is twofold: first, to provide information upon which the trial court may decide which prospective jurors, if any, should be excused for cause; and second, to provide information to counsel which may aid them in the exercise of their right to peremptory challenge. . . . [T]he court should grant such latitude as is reasonably necessary to fairly accomplish the purposes of the voir dire.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Ross, 269 Conn. 213, 251-52, 849 A.2d 648 (2004).

It is not the duty of counsel to instruct venire members or selected jurors with regard to the law; that is the duty of the court. Nonetheless, because the purpose of voir dire is to elicit information on which the court and the parties fairly can evaluate a venire member’s ability to serve as a juror, it is customary for counsel to inquire of venire members whether they are inclined to adhere to and to apply the legal principles that generally will apply to the matter before them.

Having reviewed the prosecutor’s examination of L and every other venire member, we are not persuaded that the prosecutor inaccurately characterized the state’s burden of proof when he referred to proof beyond a reasonable doubt as a “human burden.” The prosecutor typically used that phrase after accurately informing jurors that the state did not have to prove its case to the level of “perfection,” “proof beyond a shadow of a doubt,” “proof beyond all possible doubt,” “100 percent certainty” or “absolute proof.” The [356]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
877 A.2d 872, 90 Conn. App. 350, 2005 Conn. App. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-holley-connappct-2005.