Opinion ID: 2264301
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Burden shifting statements

Text: Petitioner argues that the State improperly attempted to place a burden upon him to present evidence that Nigha had a motive to lie. The Court of Special Appeals determined that the prosecutor's statements clearly asserted that petitioner had failed to present evidence rebutting the State's case. Lawson, 160 Md.App. at 628, 865 A.2d at 633. That court, however, found that the statements did not deny petitioner a fair trial, even if improper, because the jury instructions clearly stated that the burden was upon the State. We stated in Eley, 288 Md. at 555 n. 2, 419 A.2d at 388 n. 2, that the prosecution was not free to comment upon the defendant's failure to produce evidence to refute the State's evidence because it could amount to an impermissible shift of the burden of proof. Later, in Degren, 352 Md. at 429, 722 A.2d at 901, a prosecutor during rebuttal stated: ` nobody in this country has more reason to lie than a defendant in a criminal trial. ' We determined that such a remark was improper, unprofessional and injudicious. We found, however, that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the comments and denying the defendant's motions for curative instructions. We reasoned that, although improper, the comment did not bear directly on the defendant's guilt or innocence. Furthermore, the comments were made in response to the defendants closing arguments stating that the State's witnesses had various reasons to lie. In Shoemaker v. State, 228 Md. 462, 468, 180 A.2d 682, 685 (1962), the prosecutor alluded to the fact that the defendant would be eligible for parole if convicted. The Court concluded that such statements tend to shift the responsibility for finding guilt or innocence onto another body after conviction. It found that it was clear that the argument . . . was improper, and that the jurors `were likely to have been [improperly] influenced to the prejudice of the accused'. . . . Id. at 473, 180 A.2d at 688 (citations omitted); see also Brown v. State, 339 Md. 385, 663 A.2d 583 (1995) (holding that a prosecutor's statement insinuating that the jury could take mercy into account during deliberations was improper, that the effect of injecting such a proposition into the deliberations created the possibility that it would influence the verdict and was not harmless error). The primary evidence in this case was provided directly or indirectly by the victim's statements. Thus, her credibility was a major issue. The prosecutor's statements tended to shift the State's burden to prove all the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt by requiring the defendant to prove that Nigha was lying. The State's statements were, therefore, inappropriate and under all of the circumstances of this case, as hereafter explained, the jurors `were likely to have been [improperly] influenced to the prejudice of the accused'. . . . Shoemaker, 228 Md. at 473, 180 A.2d at 688.