State of Maine v. Antoinne Bethea, 221 A.3d 563

Victim visited Bangor with a friend to see his eight-year-old son, who lived with his mother and defendant Antoinne Bethea; the son said Bethea had been cooking a "white stuff" (understood as crack).
After receiving texts from the victim, Bethea retrieved a hidden handgun, an altercation ensued in the driveway, and Bethea fired two shots, killing the victim.
Bethea fled, cut his dreadlocks, and later gave the handgun (wrapped in a sock) to an acquaintance who buried it; police later recovered the gun.
Bethea was indicted for murder, tried by jury, acquitted of murder but convicted of Class A manslaughter and sentenced to a lengthy term; he appealed.
On appeal Bethea challenged three trial rulings: the court’s voir dire questionnaire (race-related questions and lack of a “not sure” option), admission of a photo of the victim with his son, and the adequacy of a curative instruction after a prosecutor’s misstatement in closing.

Issue	State's Argument	Bethea's Argument	Held
Adequacy of voir dire on racial bias	Questionnaire and individual voir dire sufficiently probed race issues; court excluded biased jurors	Court should have used Bethea’s specific race-worded questions and a “not sure” option because race was a trial issue	Voir dire was adequate; court did not abuse discretion in wording or omitting “not sure” option
Admissibility of photograph of victim with son	Photo was relevant to rebut defense theory that victim visited to sell drugs; minimal prejudicial effect	Photo was irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial, offered to elicit sympathy	Photo was relevant to show purpose of visit and relationship; probative value not substantially outweighed prejudice; admission proper
Prosecutor’s misstatement in rebuttal	Misstatement was inadvertent and cured by the court’s instruction; no bad faith	Misstatement improperly bolstered State witness and required more than a curative instruction	Trial court’s curative instruction was adequate; no prosecutorial bad faith and no undue prejudice

State v. Roby, 171 A.3d 1157 (discussing trial court discretion in voir dire)
State v. Lowry, 819 A.2d 331 (establishes voir dire must reveal juror bias but need not follow defendant’s exact wording)
State v. Collin, 741 A.2d 1074 (permitting broader voir dire queries than those requested by a party)
State v. Allen, 892 A.2d 456 (standards for photographic evidence admissibility)
State v. Michaud, 168 A.3d 802 (relevancy review and Rule 403 discretion)
State v. Dolloff, 58 A.3d 1032 (standard for reviewing prosecutorial misstatement and curative instruction)
State v. Winslow, 930 A.2d 1080 (curative instructions usually adequate absent bad faith or exceptional prejudice)
State v. Scott, 211 A.3d 205 (similar holding that curative instruction remedied a minor misstatement)
State v. Tarbox, 158 A.3d 957 (presumption that juries follow curative instructions)