Opinion ID: 574322
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: objections to prosecutorial summation

Text: 45 Defendant Levine contends that statements by the prosecutor in his rebuttal argument deprived him of a fair trial and that the District Court abused its discretion when it denied his motion for mistrial based on the statements. Levine's attorney argued in summation that the prosecution had failed to produce any evidence which linked Levine to the purchase, sale, transfer of funds into or out of Swiss accounts. In response, the prosecution referred to cashiers checks from Nevada banks which had been deposited in Switzerland. The inference was that these checks established that money from sales in Nevada, where Levine managed Sturman's businesses, had been moved into foreign banks. Levine asserts that since no direct or concrete evidence was produced to link him with those foreign bank transactions, the prosecutor's remarks were prejudicial and improperly suggested an unsupported inference. 46 Alleged prosecutorial prejudicial or biased remarks will warrant reversal only if the comments have so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process. United States v. Moreno, 899 F.2d 465, 468 (6th Cir.1990) (quoting Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 181, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 2471, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986)). In this case, evidence did exist that suggested Levine had participated in the skimming and transfer of money from United States corporations to Swiss accounts. This evidence included Levine's signature on signature cards and the testimony of various witnesses. This evidence is adequate to support any inference by the jury that deposits to the Swiss accounts from Nevada reflects proceeds from the skimming of income in which Levine was involved. In addition, the jury was instructed that the arguments of the attorneys should be dismissed to the extent they were unsupported by the evidence. This Court finds Levine's guilt supported by the evidence and that the prosecution's summary argument did not infect[ ] the trial with unfairness.