Opinion ID: 2575997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Alleged prosecutorial misconduct in implicating defendant in a second murder

Text: Defendant accuses the prosecution of misconduct by asking questions during cross-examination of defendant's two brothers, Buford Kennedy and Hank Kennedy, that taken together suggested defendant's involvement in a second murder. We disagree. On cross-examination, Buford Kennedy told the prosecutor he did not want defendant executed. The prosecutor then asked, Whether it was one murder or even if it was two murders? Buford responded by saying if it was two murders or one murder, if he was guilty I feel that he would have copped to it. Later, during the prosecutor's cross-examination of Hank Kennedy, when Hank said he did not know what defendant did when he was released from prison on March 5, 1993, the prosecutor asked him if he knew what [defendant] did on March 9, 1993? Hank answered no. The prosecution then asked to approach the bench and, in defense counsel's presence, said: My position is that given on direct testimony and especially the part about where he thinks his brother can lead a productive life, that it's proper to impeach this witness with the evidence of the Loaf shooting. The court refused to allow the prosecutor to use evidence of the Loaf shooting. Because of the trial court's rulings excluding evidence concerning what was referred to at trial as the Loaf shooting, the record discloses very little about the matter. Presumably, the references to the Loaf shooting are to the attempted murder of John Tucker, also known as Loaf, that we discussed in the previous part. Defendant's allegation that the prosecution committed misconduct because the jury could infer from the cross-examinations of defendant's brothers, Buford and Hank Kennedy, that defendant committed a second murder is too speculative. The prosecutor's question to Buford Kennedy about a second murder, quoted in the immediately preceding paragraph, was not connected to any facts about any murder. The prosecutor's question to Hank Kennedy, also quoted above, stated a date, March 9, 1993, presumably the date of the Loaf shooting incident, but the question asked only about a date; it was not connected to anything about the Loaf shooting or any other factual assertions. We conclude that the jury would not have inferred from these questions that defendant had committed a second murder.