Opinion ID: 1472408
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Argument Concerning Julia Lane

Text: The government presented the testimony of Julia Lane, who lived in the area of the shooting. Ms. Lane testified that she was at home on the night of the shooting with her sixteen-month old son, when she heard a loud crash that sounded like a breaking dish. The next morning she saw broken glass and a hole in the window shade that she thought to be a bullet hole. Ms. Lane called the police who came and found a bullet near her son's high chair. Over defense objection, the trial court precluded any general reference to what might have happened to Ms. Lane and her child, but ruled that the prosecutor could use the incident to illustrate transferred intent as the prosecutor had requested. The prosecutor then argued that [appellant] would have been just as guilty of shooting someone in Julia Lane's apartment as he ... is guilty of shooting at and trying to kill Kevin Jackson and Michael Ko. He's also guilty of the murder of his best friend, Kenny Anderson. Appellant argues that permitting this argument was error because: (1) it appealed to the passions and prejudice of the jury; (2) it was not necessary for an explanation of the concept of transferred intent; and (3) it implicitly asked the jury to convict despite appellant's self-defense claim because there was no evidence of self-defense related to the hypothetical shooting of Ms. Lane or her son. A prosecutor should refrain from making statements that are designed to inflame the passions of the jury. See Butts v. United States, 822 A.2d 407, 420 (D.C.2003) (citing Nelson v. United States, 601 A.2d 582, 587-88 (D.C.1991)). To that end, prosecutors are prohibited from making statements that attempt to appeal to the jurors' sympathies[.] Carpenter v. United States, 635 A.2d 1289, 1296 (D.C.1993). Prosecutorial remarks that urge the jury to render a verdict based upon the larger social policy implications of the crime are improper. See Hart v. United States, 538 A.2d 1146, 1150 (D.C.1988) (finding improper the prosecutor's argument to find defendant guilty for everything [he] did was improper, as it asked jurors to render a verdict based upon a larger societal policy). The argument calling the jury's attention to appellant's actions that placed Ms. Lane and her infant son in harm's way tends to arouse the passions of the jury. Viewed in context, the reference to Ms. Lane's apartment was a fleeting, even if an unnecessary, effort to explain the concept of transferred intent. The main focus of the prosecutor's transferred intent [8] explanation was upon the person appellant intended shoot, Jackson, and the actual victim, Kenny Anderson. However, this hypothetical example in argument, as the trial court described it, picked up on a questionable theme of the prosecutor's opening statement, to which appellant had objected, that Ms. Lane was one of appellant's unintended victims. These references were more likely to evoke an emotional reaction and deflect the jury from its task than they were to elucidate the concept of transferred intent. Nevertheless, given the brevity of the prosecutor's remarks, their context, and the strength of the government's case, we are persuaded that any error of the trial court in not taking corrective action was harmless.