MAXWELL, J., for the Court:
¶ 1. In the appeal of his conviction of seven counts of aggravated assault, Kewon Evans raises a single challenge. He asserts that, during voir dire, the trial judge improperly secured from potential jury members a commitment to find Evans guilty.
¶ 2. While it is impermissible to ask the jury to pledge a verdict based on a hypothetical question couched in the particular facts of the case, here we find the trial judge did not ask for such a pledge. Instead, he asked questions to ascertain any preconceived notions about what type of evidence the State would have to produce in order to find Evans guilty. Because asking these questions was well within the trial judge's discretion, we find no reversible error. We affirm Evans's conviction.
¶ 3. On the night of September 14, 2010, Evans got into a fight outside of Club Platinum in Gunnison, Mississippi. According to two eyewitnesses, Evans began shooting toward the club. The bullets penetrated the club's walls, hitting seven patrons. An eighth person was injured during the ensuing chaos.
¶ 4. The State charged Evans with eight counts of aggravated assault. After the State rested, the trial judge granted Evans a directed verdict on count eight — the assault count involving the injured victim who had not been shot. The seven remaining counts were submitted to the jury, who found Evans guilty on each count. The trial judge sentenced him to five years' imprisonment on each count, to be served consecutively, for a total of thirty-five years. Evans timely appealed.
¶ 5. In his appeal, Evans makes a single assertion of error. Evans claims he is entitled to a new trial based on questions the trial judge asked during voir dire — questions his trial counsel had not found objectionable. Because the trial judge acted well within his discretion when asking these questions, we find no abuse of discretion, let alone the plain error needed. So we affirm.
¶ 6. During voir dire, the prosecution asked the venire, "If the State does not produce a gun as evidence that was used by an alleged shooter, will you hold that against the State?" Evans made no objection.
¶ 7. Again, Evan's trial counsel made no objection to this line of questioning as being improper. In fact, when discussing whether one of the jurors who raised his hand should be stricken for cause, Evans's trial attorney joked that he "wish[ed] [the juror] would have been quiet."
¶ 8. But Evans's appellate counsel takes a quite different view, asserting that the trial judge, by asking those questions about the gun, improperly sought a commitment from jurors to vote a certain way. Because no objection was made during trial, this issue is procedurally barred. See Simmons v. State, 805 So.2d 452, 505 (¶ 148) (Miss.2001) (citing Edwards v. State, 737 So.2d 275, 308 (¶ 103) (Miss. 1999)) (holding "failure to object during voir dire barred the issue from being raised on appeal"). So for us to reverse, Evans must show the trial judge's questions amounted to plain error. See Avery v. State, 119 So.3d 329, 333 (¶ 11) (Miss.Ct. App.2012) (reviewing claim that prosecution improperly secured pledge from jury for plain error); see also Minor v. State, 89 So.3d 710, 715 (¶ 17) (Miss.Ct.App.2012) (discussing plain-error doctrine and its requirements).
¶ 9. We find Evans has shown no error at all, let alone an "obvious" error prejudicially affecting the outcome of the trial. See Minor, 89 So.3d at 715 (¶ 17).
¶ 10. A trial judge has "broad discretion in passing on the extent and propriety of questions that are addressed to the venire." Corner v. State, 744 So.2d 793, 796 (¶ 9) (Miss.Ct.App. 1999) (quoting Davis v. State, 684 So.2d 643, 651 (Miss. 1996)). However, this broad discretion is not without limit. In particular, "[h]ypothetical questions couched in the facts of the particular case asking the venire to pledge a specific verdict are impermissible." Manning v. State, 835 So.2d 94, 97 (¶ 7) (Miss.Ct.App.2002) (citing Harris v. State, 532 So.2d 602, 606, 607 (Miss.1988)); see also URCCC 3.05. But in fulfilling his or her "responsibility to control voir dire," a trial judge "must take care not to hinder a full exploration of a juror's predispositions, by hypothetical [question] or otherwise." Id. (quoting Evans v. State, 725 So.2d 613 (¶ 128) (Miss.1997)). Because "the line between a proper and improper question is not always easily drawn[,] ... the trial judge must be given a considerable amount of discretion." Id.
¶ 12. In fact, no error was committed at all because the trial judge was well within his broad discretion when asking the venire about any preconceived notions regarding what evidence was required to convict Evans. Despite acknowledging the fact the judge did not request a commitment of a specific verdict, Evans nevertheless insists the judge's questions were out-of-bounds because they suggested the jury could find Evans guilty without the State having shown it had retrieved the gun from Evans.
¶ 13. For example, in Manning, this court found no abuse of discretion when the trial judge permitted the State to ask the venire if anyone would require eyewitness testimony or scientific evidence to find the defendant guilty of murder. Manning, 835 So.2d at 96-97 (¶ 5). Instead of improperly "secur[ing] a pledge from the jurors that they would return a certain verdict given a certain set of facts," the State through its questions "was trying to ascertain: (1) whether the jurors could put aside the fact that there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and (2) whether they had any preconceived notions that a
¶ 14. Similarly, in Corner, this court found that "merely ask[ing] whether the venire would still be able to consider a guilty verdict even though there was no weapon, fingerprint, DNA, or confession evidence ... was within the permissible range of acceptable questioning." Corner, 744 So.2d at 796 (¶ 9); see also Goff v. State, 14 So.3d 625, 652-54 (¶¶ 110-12) (Miss.2009) (finding no impropriety in the State asking the jury if they could set aside preconceived notions regarding forensic evidence and convict the defendant of murder even if no DNA evidence was produced).
¶ 15. The only difference between this case and Manning and Corner is that, here, the trial judge, not just the prosecutor, asked if the jury would be able to convict even if no gun was admitted into evidence. Because the judge did not request a specific verdict but instead merely asked whether potential jurors had preconceived notions about what evidence needed to be produced, we find the judge acted within his broad discretion during voir dire.
¶ 16.
LEE, C.J., IRVING AND GRIFFIS, P.JJ., BARNES, ISHEE, ROBERTS, CARLTON AND FAIR, JJ., CONCUR. JAMES, J., CONCURS IN PART AND IN THE RESULT WITHOUT SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION.
Because the jury had also been instructed on the lesser-included offense of robbery, the Mississippi Supreme Court found that "[t]he fact that the jury asked the question at all indicates that there may well have been jurors who had concluded that the State's failure to recover a weapon was sufficient to raise a reasonable doubt that the crime of armed robbery had been committed." Id. at 1034 (¶ 13). Thus, the "pronouncement by the trial court," over the defendant's objection, "that such evidence was not essential to a conviction for armed robbery could easily have undermined a legitimate analysis of the strength of the State's proof." Id.
Here, we do not have empaneled jurors in the midst of deliberation being instructed by a judge on how to view the already presented evidence in response to a note about the fact the State had presented no arms in an armed-robbery case. Instead, we have potential jurors being questioned about their preconceived notion that a certain piece of evidence — the gun used to shoot the seven victims — is essential to convict, when admission of this physical evidence is not a necessary element of the charged crimes. So Mickell does not support a finding of plain error here.