Opinion
2016-UP-329
06-29-2016
The State, Respondent, v. Ralpheal L. Robertson, Appellant. Appellate Case No. 2014-001630
Appellate Defender Kathrine Haggard Hudgins, of Columbia, for Appellant. Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson and Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General John Benjamin Aplin, both of Columbia; and Solicitor James Strom Thurmond, Jr., of Aiken, for Respondent.
UNPUBLISHED OPINION
Submitted April 1, 2016
Appeal From Aiken County Eugene C. Griffith, Jr., Circuit Court Judge
Appellate Defender Kathrine Haggard Hudgins, of Columbia, for Appellant.
Attorney General Alan McCrory Wilson and Senior Assistant Deputy Attorney General John Benjamin Aplin, both of Columbia; and Solicitor James Strom Thurmond, Jr., of Aiken, for Respondent.
PER CURIAM.
Affirmed pursuant to Rule 220(b), SCACR, and the following authorities: State v. Wise, 359 S.C. 14, 22-23, 596 S.E.2d 475, 479 (2004) ("The authority and responsibility of the trial court is to focus the scope of the voir dire examination as set forth in [section 14-7-1020 of the South Carolina Code (Supp. 2015)]."); S.C. Code Ann. § 14-7-1020 ("The court shall, on motion of either party in the suit, examine on oath any person who is called as a juror to know whether he is related to either party, has any interest in the cause, has expressed or formed any opinion, or is sensible of any bias or prejudice therein . . . ."); State v. Patterson, 324 S.C. 5, 16, 482 S.E.2d 760, 765 (1997) ("The manner in which these questions are pursued and the scope of any additional voir dire are matters of trial court discretion."); Wise, 359 S.C. at 23, 596 S.E.2d at 479 ("[I]t is not enough that a question may be helpful. Rather, the trial court's failure to ask or allow a question must render the defendant's trial fundamentally unfair.").
We decide this case without oral argument pursuant to Rule 215, SCACR.
HUFF, KONDUROS, and GEATHERS, JJ., concur.