Opinion ID: 836626
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of Plain-Error Review

Text: In this case, the four requirements of plain-error review are met, and, therefore, reversal is warranted. First, there was an error. Defendant's due process rights were violated by the prosecution's references to defendant's post-arrest, post- Miranda silence, and defendant did not waive his rights. Second, the error was plain. As discussed, the error was an obvious violation of a defendant's due process rights under Doyle and its progeny. Third, defendant has shown that the error affected his substantial rights. Under the third prong of plain-error review, a defendant must generally show that the error was prejudicial. It is difficult for an appellate court to know what effect the prosecutor's repeated use of defendant's post- Miranda silence might have had on the jury. Nonetheless, we hold that defendant has shown that the error is prejudicial, considering (1) the extent of the prosecutor's comments, (2) the extent to which the prosecutor attempted to tie defendant's silence to his guilt, and (3) the overall strength of the case against defendant when considered in light of the degree to which the jury's assessment of the evidence might have been affected by the prosecutor's references to defendant's silence. [16] In contrast to the other Doyle case we decide today, People v. Borgne, 483 Mich. 178, 768 N.W.2d 290 (2009); in which we consider these same factors, the error in this case was clearly prejudicial. To begin with, the more extensive a prosecutor's references to a defendant's post-arrest, post- Miranda silence, the more likely it is that the references had a prejudicial effect. In this case, the prosecutor's references to defendant's silence were frequent throughout the trial, from the prosecutor's opening and closing statements, to his case-in-chief, to his cross-examination of defendant. The pervasiveness of the prosecutor's references to defendant's silence increases the likelihood that the references had a prejudicial effect. Further, a prosecutor's references to a defendant's post-arrest, post- Miranda silence are more likely to be prejudicial the more directly or explicitly the prosecutor uses the silence to challenge a defendant's credibility or show a defendant's guilt. In this case, the references to defendant's post-arrest silence were not inadvertent references that the jury might not have connected to defendant's guilt. Instead, the prosecutor referred to defendant's silence in a manner that deliberately challenged defendant's credibility and his claim of innocence. In addition, the prosecutor impliedly suggested that defendant's silence was evidence of his guilt and even explicitly asked the jury to infer guilt from defendant's silence in his closing argument. In comparison, in Borgne, the prosecutor did use the defendant's silence to challenge the credibility of defendant's exculpatory story, but he did not go so far as to explicitly or impliedly suggest to the jury that it should infer guilt from the silence. [17] Finally, the degree to which prosecutorial references to a defendant's post-arrest, post- Miranda silence are prejudicial depends on the overall strength of the case against the defendant and the degree to which the jury's assessment of the evidence might have been affected by the prosecutor's references to a defendant's silence. In this case, the strength of the prosecutor's overall case against defendant hinged entirely on the jury's assessments of the witnesses' credibility. It consisted mainly of AS's testimony and the corroborating testimony of her sisters, but the sisters' testimony conflicted at times with AS's. The jury's acquittal of defendant on the charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct suggests that at least some of the jurors questioned AS's credibility as compared to defendant's, even with the prosecutor's impermissible references to defendant's silence. The trial was essentially a credibility contest between defendant and AS and her sisters, and the prosecutor's repeated references to defendant's silence might have undermined defendant's credibility. In contrast, in Borgne, the degree to which the jury would have found much of the evidence credible was not directly affected by the prosecutor's references to the defendant's silence. Specifically, the prosecution in Borgne presented physical evidence against the defendant and eyewitness testimony corroborating the victim's account of the events. In sum, in this case, in light of the prosecutor's extensive references to defendant's silence, the extensive connection of that silence to defendant's guilt, the inconsistencies in the prosecutor's case and the other evidence presented against him, and the nature of defendant's defensewhich hinged on his own credibility, we hold that the error was prejudicial. [18] Fourth, there is no question that this is the sort of error that compromises the fairness, integrity, and truth-seeking function of a jury trial. The violation of defendant's due process rights rendered the trial fundamentally unfair and cast a shadow on the integrity of our state's judicial processes. Therefore, all four requirements of plain-error review are met, and reversal is warranted.