State v. Williams - death penalty affirmed
In State v. Williams, decided February 8, the S.C. Supreme Court upheld Williams' death sentence following his convictions for murder, kidnapping, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.
The Court held that 1) it was not error for the trial judge not to declare a mistrial where the jury sent out a note disclosing that they were split 9-3 for death (if the court had asked what the division was it may have been grounds to reverse); 2) it was not error for the trial judge not to declare a mistrial when the jury revealed that they were divided; 3) that the Allen charge given to the jury was not coercive; and 4) that it was not error for the trial judge not to declare a mistrial based on the testimony of the state's psychiatrist who testified to bolster the state's decision to seek the death penalty despite not being qualified as an expert (her testimony was as a lay witness).
Justice Pleicones' concurrence highlights the difficulties of preserving the record for appeal - although he agreed with the result, he would have found that at least one of the issues on appeal was not preserved. Regarding the objections to the psychiatrist's testimony, one of the defendant's lawyers asked for a curative instruction, and the defendant's second lawyer asked for a mistrial. The judge gave the curative instruction and denied the motion for mistrial; because the second lawyer did not object to the sufficiency of the curative instruction, Pleicones points out that the mistrial issue was not preserved for appeal.
