Opinion ID: 2137352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Comment in Closing Argument

Text: Naylor asks for a new trial on the ground that the state during closing argument improperly commented on his decision not to testify on his own behalf, and that the curative instruction was not given until the final charge to the jury. Adverse comment on the defendant's election not to testify is per se reversible error when the comment is extensive, when an inference of guilt from silence is stressed to the jury as a basis of conviction, and when there is evidence that could have supported acquittal. Anderson v. Nelson, 390 U.S. 523, 523-24, 88 S.Ct. 1133, 1134, 20 L.Ed.2d 81 (1968). When these factors are not present, such comment is subject to harmless error review. State v. Spencer, 311 Minn. 222, 248 N.W.2d 915 (1976); cf. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 23-24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 827-28, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967) (dictum) (establishing harmless error rule in comparable cases but reversing conviction on facts of Chapman's case). The first step in analysis is characterizing the state's comment in closing argument. The state's closing argument ended with these remarks: Just look at those elements and you can resolve this  you're not going to resolve every single issue that is hanging in this case. In fact, as some of the witnesses said, I'm telling the truth and the defendant knows the truth. We're never going to know exactly what happened out there. But you certainly have enough evidence before you to find the defendant guilty of first-degree murder having premeditated with the intent to kill Wayne Lange on the 29th of October of 1989. And I ask you to come back with a verdict of guilty in this case. Thank you. Naylor characterizes this remark as an adverse comment on his election not to testify on his own behalf. The state characterizes the comment as a summation of Lyle McIntyre's testimony during cross-examination. Even if we characterize the comment as Naylor would have us do, it is certainly neither extensive, stressed to the jury as a basis for conviction, nor part of a case in which there is evidence that could have supported acquittal on the charge of being an accomplice to first degree murder. Thus, harmless error analysis would apply, and for the reasons stated above the error, if any, is harmless. We are especially reluctant to characterize the comment as error because the jury was instructed in the trial court's final charge not to draw any adverse inference from Naylor's election not to testify. In this case, we see no reason the trial court should have been required to give the curative instruction immediately after the comment was made, as Naylor has argued, rather than in the final charge to the jury. See State v. Race, 383 N.W.2d 656, 664 (Minn.1986) (holding prosecutorial error is curable by final instructions).