Opinion ID: 1277687
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Prosecutor's Reference Concerning Those Whom Defendant Hates

Text: During closing argument the prosecutor attempted to counter defendant's claim that he had poor impulse control and therefore was in some way not fully responsible for his actions. The prosecutor surmised that because defendant hated authority figures, he likely hated many of the people present in the court, including the prosecutor himself, the judge, his own counsel, and the bailiff, but that he was able nonetheless to restrain himself in court from committing violence against these people. He inferred from this fact that defendant's commission of violence was calculated and self-serving rather than the result of poor impulse control. Defendant contends that the prosecutor was using the supposition of his hatred of authority figures as an additional nonstatutory aggravating factor. But it is clear from the above context that the prosecutor's remarks in this regard were for the proper purpose of addressing defendant's mitigation evidence, and did not suggest that the jury exceed the bounds of the aggravating factors enumerated in section 190.3.