Following a jury trial, Frederick O’Neal was found guilty of armed robbery, aggravated assault, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer. During the State’s closing argument at trial, the prosecutor stated: I’m going to invite y’all to come back to DeKalb County Superior Court courtroom —you can come to this courtroom or any of the other Superior courtrooms —watch trials for the next year. Okay. Come back and see how many times we have this much evidence.1 O’Neal objected to this argument, and his objection was sustained. However, the trial court did not give a curative instruction as requested by O’Neal, instead simply stating, “All right. All right. Just proceed on.” O’Neal appealed to the Court of Appeals, arguing that the trial court erred by failing to give a curative instruction. In an unpublished opinion, the Court of Appeals held that O’Neal’s failure to obtain a ruling on his request for a curative instruction waived the issue on appeal. O’Neal v. State , __Ga. App.__ Case No. A09A2077; decided August 20, 2009 unpublished. We granted O’Neal’s petition for a writ of certiorari and posed the following questions: Whether, if a defendant objects to a prosecutor placing prejudicial matters before the jury which are not in evidence and the trial court sustains the objection, the trial court is required by OCGA § 17-8-75 to give a curative instruction even absent a request from the defendant. If not, whether when the defendant does request a curative instruction, as did O’Neal, that request is sufficient to preserve the defendant’s right to complain of the failure to give a curative instruction even if the trial court fails to rule on the request. Whether the trial court’s statement to “just proceed on” constituted a denial of O’Neal’s request for a curative instruction. For the reasons that follow, we hold that, because the plain language of OCGA § 17-8-75 speaks in terms of the trial court’s duty to give a curative instruction when a proper objection is made to the State’s introduction of improper argument on matters that are not in evidence, and because our most recent precedents interpreting the statute make clear that a mere objection is sufficient to preserve the issue for appellate review, the Court of Appeals erred in concluding that O’Neal waived review of his claim by failing to obtain a ruling on his request for a curative instruction. However, because the trial court’s error in failing to give a curative instruction was harmless, O’Neal’s conviction must nevertheless be affirmed. We therefore reverse the Court of Appeals’ ruling on the issue of waiver, but affirm the Court of Appeals’ ultimate decision to affirm O’Neal’s conviction.
1. OCGA § 17-8-75 states: Where counsel in the hearing of the jury make statements of prejudicial matters which are not in evidence, it is the duty of the court to interpose and prevent the same. On objection made, the court shall also rebuke the counsel and by all needful and proper instructions to the jury endeavor to remove the improper impression from their minds; or, in his discretion, he may order a mistrial if the prosecuting attorney is the offender. In construing this statute,
