Opinion ID: 166399
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Misstatement of the Evidence

Text: 128 Mr. Thornburg complains of prosecution comments about the defense's punishment-phase expert, Dr. Philip Murphy, a clinical psychologist. Dr. Murphy testified that excessive drinking and other injuries caused Mr. Thornburg's organic brain damage that led to blackouts during which he would lose consciousness. Dr. Murphy performed 11 tests and a clinical interview to assess Mr. Thornburg. In his closing argument at the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecutor said: (1) You heard Dr. Murphy. He spent 15 minutes looking at him and he said he's brain damaged? Tr. IV at 200; and (2) Dr. Murphy says that Richard Thornburg, as long as he's not drinking and in these blackouts, he's not a dangerous man. This is, of course, from his 15 minutes upstairs in jail. Tr. IV at 203-04. But nowhere in the record is there evidence about the amount of time Dr. Murphy spent with Mr. Thornburg. A prosecutor is allowed to comment on the evidence and draw inferences therefrom, but he may not speculate or refer to evidence never presented to the jury. See Le v. Mullin, 311 F.3d at 1020-21 (criticizing prosecutor for mischaracterizing evidence and suggesting that defendant had committed other murders when such facts were not in evidence). The prosecutor's 15-minute comments were improper. 129 On the other hand, defense counsel never objected to these statements. Also, the judge instructed the jury that it should consider only the evidence introduced at trial, that the attorneys' statements and arguments are not evidence, and that the jury bore the responsibility of determining the credibility of each witness. Such instructions may minimize the impact of a prosecutor's misstatements. See Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 168, 182, 106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986) (jury instructions that their decision was to be made on the basis of the evidence alone, and that the arguments of counsel were not evidence helped remedy prosecutor's improper closing argument). 130