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State v. Walls11/3/1995
to "send a thunderous message to anybody who would think about committing such a wicked, evil, heinous act in the borders of the county" and that this crime was a "senseless, merciless, heartless murder." This overt play to the jurors' sympathies, according to defendant, continued when the prosecutor argued, "If this [murder] is not . . . sufficiently substantial to call for the imposition of the death penalty, ladies and gentlemen, we might as well forget it and go home and never call another jury to come back up here to look at another . . . death penalty [case] again." Defendant interprets these arguments as tantamount to informing the jury that it should respond to community pressure and impose the death penalty. We disagree with defendant's interpretation.
In State v. Moseley, 338 N.C. 1, 449 S.E.2d 412 (1994), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 131 L. Ed. 2d 738 (1995), this Court held that a prosecutor's argument to jurors that they "are the voice" and "the conscience of the community" was proper and did not ask jurors to render a verdict based upon public sentiment. In this instance, despite defendant's urging, we do not perceive that the prosecutor's words relayed to the jury that it should buckle under the pressure of the community and impose death. This Court has also held that it is proper during closing arguments "for the prosecutor to ask for the highest degree of conviction and the most severe punishment available." State v. Olson, 330 N.C. 557, 568, 411 S.E.2d 592, 598 (1992). We conclude that the prosecutor's arguments were proper and merely reminded the jury that its verdict would send a message to the people of Northampton County, and that this murder was deserving of the death penalty, the highest punishment available.
Third, defendant contends the prosecutor improperly argued to the jury that it should return a sentence of death because of the characteristics of the victim and the feelings of his family. Defendant apparently finds offense in the prosecutor's reference to Christopher as a "little, bitty boy" and that Christopher "wanted to live, . . . appreciated the little things in life . . . loved to play." Defendant apparently did not hear this argument in the context he would now like it to be heard since he failed to object. As this argument was rooted in the evidence, it was proper and did not require the trial court to intervene ex mero motu. Defendant also contends Christopher's age was used as a reason to impose the death penalty when the prosecutor quoted from the Bible that "whoso shall offend one of these little ones . . . it were better for him that a millstone were hanged around his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Here again, defendant failed to object at trial, and we find this argument fails to rise to the level of gross impropriety requiring the trial court to censor the argument ex mero motu.
Defendant further contends that the prosecutor reached the "nadir of blatant appeals to passion and prejudice" of the jury when in arguing the existence of the especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel aggravating circumstance, the prosecutor reminded the jury that Christopher lay on the river bottom, conscious, for four minutes, and then the prosecutor said, "I'm not going to say anything for four minutes. Just think about it. This is especially, heinous, atrocious and cruel. (Silence)." Defendant's objection, apparently only made after some two minutes of silence, was overruled by the trial court. In a strikingly similar case, this Court found an argument, during which the prosecutor clocked a four-minute long pause and asked jurors to hold their breath as long as they could to better understand manual strangulation and how long four mi
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