Opinion ID: 1474108
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 24

Heading: The Misconduct of the Prosecutor.

Text: Defendant alleges that gross misconduct of the prosecutor was prejudicial to him. It is true that some of the conduct of the prosecutor involved was not exemplary, particularly in view of his office. Part of this in turn was due to the behavior of defense counsel. It, too, was not always exemplary. There were many uncalled for remarks on the part of both attorneys throughout the trial. We are not attempting to balance out the respective incidents of trial behavior, and it would not decide the issue of prejudice to the defendant if we did. The first instance of alleged misconduct referred to by the defendant is that the prosecutor tried the case in the newspapers. There was no showing nor even any sufficient allegation of any concerted action between the prosecutor and the agents of the press. The defendant states that the newspaper stories had so roiled up the community that there should have been a change of venue or a continuance and he so moved. The record reveals that the jury was chosen very carefully, and both sides accepted the jury which was eventually sworn. These contentions carry us beyond the misconduct of the attorney. Even so, we think that the trial court properly exercised its discretion on the matter and all its corollaries. The second example of defendant's charge of misconduct on the part of the prosecutor is the several allegedly inflammatory statements to the jury. We believe that many of the statements were improper. Most of the worst examples of inflammatory remarks, however, came in the closing argument, to which no objection was made until far too late. The objection was not made until after the closing argument was concluded, the Court was well along in its charge to the jury, and a noon recess had been taken. [22] No opportunity was given to the judge or to the prosecutor to water down any flames started. Other remarks do not appear as bad in context as when isolated in defendant's brief. Some of the remarks were corrected during the course of trial. The Judge maintained a good surveillance in this connection. A careful study of the record shows that although some of the remarks of the prosecutor were improper, on the whole it cannot be said that there was prejudicial error. [23] One of the items grouped under inflammatory statements to the jury involves actions as well as words. Defense counsel had stated that they wanted copies of speeches referred to by a Government witness. The prosecutor indicated that he could bring them in by the mail bag full. Later during a conference at the bench concerning the recalling of a witness to identify the mail bags, the Court expressly ruled that the witness would not be returned. A reading of the record may give the inference that the Court did not want the mail bags around either, but there was no express ruling. Shortly thereafter, while the defense was busy cross-examining a witness, the prosecutor had the bags brought into the court room. The defense objected, and later the Court ruled them out of the room. This appears to us to be unnecessary stage business on the part of the prosecutor. We do believe that the ends of justice would not be served, however, by reversing on instances of improper action like this, considering the many aspects of this case, including a 1700-page record, and several thousand pages of exhibits. Defendant's final contention pertaining to the misconduct of the prosecutor concerns his reading from certain memoranda from the files of a well known periodical. These memoranda were in connection with defendant's attempt to counteract a recent article in the periodical which discussed Hitler and an alleged maid who supposedly did more than clean the house and prepare meals. The memoranda were admitted in evidence over defendant's objection. It seems that the present argument is really a renewal of the objection to admissibility rather than to any misconduct on the part of the prosecutor. The prosecutor could not help the fact that the evidence dealt with subject matter potent in emotional connotations. The defendant has not seen fit to stand on the inadmissibility of the evidence.