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183 Miss. 168

183 So 503

Logsdon v. State

Mississippi Supreme Court

Decided October 3, 1938

Mississippi Supreme Court · decided 1938-10-03

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Ordinarily, error in the asking of an improper question is cured by not permitting it to be answered. Whether such an error is incurable and a mistrial therefor, if requested, should be granted rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, . . .” 183 Miss. at 170 , 183 So. at 503 .”

quoted by 2 later decisions, including 378 So. 2d 1095 - Coley v. State, 722 So. 2d 151 - Brady v. State

“[t]he question was not answered by the witness. The question should not have been asked, but when the court sustained the objection thereto and directed the jury not to consider it, no error was committed in refusing the appellant's request for a mistrial.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 722 So. 2d 151 - Brady v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1938-10-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently June 2013

20 state decisions

80193819401950196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

*170 Smith, C. J.,

¶1 delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2 The appellant’s only complaint is that the court erred in not granting his request to withdraw the case from the jury and enter a mistrial. The appellant’s wife testified in his behalf, and on cross-examination was asked, “How many times has this defendant been convicted of crime?” This question was objected to by counsel for the appellant, who stated that it is “highly improper and prejudicial to the rights of the defendant, and we ask that the jury be discharged and a'mistrial entered,” to which the trial judge replied, “The objection is sustained, and you gentlemen of the jury will not consider the question, forget it.” The question was not answered by the witness. The question should not have been asked, but when the court sustained the objection thereto and directed the jury not to consider it, no error was committed in refusing the appellant’s request for a mistrial.

¶3 Ordinarily, error in the asking of an improper question is cured by not permitting it to be answered. "Whether such an error is incurable and a mistrial therefor, if requested, should be granted rests in the sound discretion of the trial court, and we do not think this discretion was here abused. On the contrary, we concur in the ruling made.

¶4 Affirmed,

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