Opinion ID: 1035557
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Challenge I

Text: The prosecutor said the following during closing argument: Rather than address the evidence . . . [Salas would] rather say, well, they should have done this. They should have gotten DNA off the bundles. They should have gotten hair fibers. Does he think the bundles of marijuana were raked? I mean, these agents who testified in this case . . . 11 Because Salas personally raised all four of these challenges, while each remaining Appellant raised only some of the challenges, we focus on the specific challenges raised by Salas. All challenges raised by the other Appellants fail for the same reasons that Salas’s do. 30 Case: 11-41376 Document: 00512323905 Page: 31 Date Filed: 07/29/2013 Nos. 11-41376 c/w 11-41392 are agents who have many, many years of experience handling these kinds of cases. They know what to do. (emphasis added). Salas objected, and the district court sustained. Presently, Salas contends that the district court mishandled his objection by not declaring a mistrial. He had not contemporaneously requested one. When a defendant asks this Court to reverse his conviction under such circumstances, he essentially asks us “to go against the implicit judgment of both the trial court and [his] trial counsel that the trial court’s corrective action was adequate and appropriate.” See United States v. Salinas, 480 F.3d 750, 756 (5th Cir. 2007) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Our review of the district court’s decision not to declare a mistrial is for plain error only. Id. (citation omitted). “[A] prosecutor’s closing argument cannot roam beyond the evidence presented during trial: Except to the extent the prosecutor bases any opinion on the evidence in the case, he may not express his personal opinion on the merits of the case or the credibility of witnesses.” Gallardo-Trapero, 185 F.3d at 320 (alteration, citation, and internal quotation marks omitted). Nonetheless, for “improper comment or questioning to represent reversible error, it generally must be so pronounced and persistent that it permeates the entire atmosphere of the trial.” United States v. Castillo, 77 F.3d 1480, 1497 (5th Cir. 1996) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the prosecutor’s statement amounted to minor bolstering, which the district court rightly struck. Therefore, even if the statement were improper under Gallardo-Trapero, it certainly was not “so pronounced and so persistent that it permeate[d] the entire atmosphere of the trial.”