Opinion ID: 3002121
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prosecution Closing Argument

Text: Ochoa-Zarate maintains that the district court should have granted a mistrial in light of statements the prosecutor made during his rebuttal closing argument, a decision we review for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Aldaco, 201 F.3d 979, 987 (7th Cir. 2000). A superseding indictment charged Bailey and Ochoa-Zarate with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it. Bailey subsequently pled guilty and testified at Ochoa-Zarate’s trial, acknowledging during his testimony that he had pled guilty and had not yet been sentenced. Ochoa-Zarate, however, exercised his right not to take the stand. The comments that Ochoa-Zarate challenges came during the government’s rebuttal closing argument. In his own closing, Ochoa-Zarate’s counsel argued that Bailey’s testimony about Ochoa-Zarate’s involvement should not be believed, emphasizing that Bailey received a plea offer from the government but had not yet been sentenced. The prosecutor began his rebuttal by responding to the defense’s argument that Jose Castaneda had engineered the drug deal by arguing that Ochoa-Zarate had tipped him off several times after Ochoa-Zarate said he would call Bailey. The prosecutor then said: No. 06-3815 7 Let’s talk about Roger Bailey for a minute. Roger Bailey got a sweetheart deal, that’s what they want you to believe, he got a sweetheart deal. You saw the penalties we had up on the screen. Roger Bailey is looking at five to 40 years in prison. Does that sound like a sweetheart deal to you? Would he come in here and lie when he is looking at five to 40 anyway? And what happens if he lies? He loses that sweetheart deal of five to 40 years and gets ten to life plus the potential for perjury charge. You want to judge the credibility of Roger Bailey? Judge the credibility of Roger Bailey. You saw him sitting on the stand. He told you the truth. He told you what he remembers and he told you the truth. And here was the question that was posed to him. “Mr. Bailey, are you a felon?” Answer: “Yes, I am.” And that’s the difference between Roger Bailey and this defendant, and I mentioned it in opening statement that this case was about this defendant failing to take responsibility for his own actions. Roger Bailey’s at least taken responsibility for his own actions. As of today, this defendant still has not. (Emphasis added.) At that point, Ochoa-Zarate’s counsel objected and said he would like to be heard at sidebar at a later time. The district court overruled the objection, and the prosecutor continued with his rebuttal argument. After its completion, Ochoa-Zarate’s counsel asked the district court to declare a mistrial, arguing that the words underlined above invited the jury to draw an adverse 8 No. 06-3815 inference from Ochoa-Zarate’s decision to exercise his constitutional right to a jury trial. The district court denied the motion, ruling that the argument was not improper because Ochoa-Zarate arguably lied to law enforcement officials after he was stopped. The district court also concluded that even if the argument was improper, it was harmless. On appeal, Ochoa-Zarate maintains that the prosecutor’s comments violated his Fifth Amendment right to refrain from testifying at trial and his Sixth Amendment right to take his case to trial. The Fifth Amendment prohibits the government from “treat[ing] a defendant’s exercise of his right to remain silent at trial as substantive evidence of guilt.” United States v. Robinson, 485 U.S. 25, 34 (1988); see also Portuondo v. Agard, 529 U.S. 61, 69 (2000); United States v. Willis, 523 F.3d 762, 773 (7th Cir. 2008). The government does not dispute that it also could not use Ochoa-Zarate’s exercise of his right to take his case to trial as evidence that he was guilty. Cf. United States v. Smith, 934 F.2d 270, 275 (11th Cir. 1991) (finding improper a prosecutor’s statement in closing argument that defendant “has not taken responsibility for his actions” because he declined to plead guilty while his co-defendants had done so). That is not to say that the law prohibits all prosecutorial comments that make reference to a defendant’s constitutional rights. When, for example, “the prosecutor’s reference to the defendant’s opportunity to testify is a fair response to a claim made by defendant or his counsel, . . . there is no violation of the privilege.” Robinson, 485 U.S. No. 06-3815 9 at 32. To determine whether a prosecutor’s remarks are improper, we look to whether, when viewing the remarks in context: (1) it was the prosecutor’s “manifest intention” to use the defendant’s exercise of his right as evidence of guilt; or (2) “the remark was of such a character that the jury would ‘naturally and necessarily’ treat it as such.” Willis, 523 F.3d at 773 (citations omitted). We agree with the government that there is no evid- ence here that the prosecutor manifestly intended to use Ochoa-Zarate’s decisions to plead not guilty and remain silent during trial as substantive evidence of his guilt. Whether the jury would “naturally and necessarily” treat the prosecutor’s remarks this way is a closer call. Had the prosecutor responded to the attack on Bailey’s credibility with only the first three paragraphs of the rebuttal argument that we quoted, the resolution of this issue would be easier. A prosecutor can certainly respond to an attack on a witness’s credibility by arguing that the jury should decide whether to believe the witness based on what it observed at trial. See United States v. Johnson, 437 F.3d 665, 673-74 (7th Cir. 2006). Here, however, the argument continued in a manner which suggested that Ochoa-Zarate’s exercise of his right to take his case to trial evidenced his guilt. Immediately after pointing out that Bailey had taken the stand and acknowledged he was a felon, the prosecutor compared Bailey to Ochoa-Zarate, saying, “And that’s the difference between Roger Bailey and this defendant . . . Roger Bailey’s at least taken responsibility for his own actions. As of today this defendant still has not.” The government 10 No. 06-3815 maintains on appeal that its failure-to-take-responsibility comments referred to Ochoa-Zarate’s lies to law enforcement officials the day he was stopped, and perhaps that was the prosecutor’s intention. But the statement that Ochoa-Zarate had not taken responsibility “as of today”—the last day of trial—does not sound like it was directed at what Ochoa-Zarate said the day of his arrest; indeed, the prosecutor had not been discussing those statements when he made the challenged remarks. To be sure, the prosecutor’s comments did not go as far as some others in cases where courts have found that a prosecutor’s comments impermissibly suggested that a defendant’s exercise of his right to trial demonstrated his guilt. See People v. Rodgers, 756 P.2d 980, 982 (Colo. 1988) (“Juries are very controversial entities. As far as attorneys, some attorneys at least, there is a feeling which I will share with you that if you are innocent—rather, if you are guilty, you would want to request a jury because they just may not convict you and if you are innocent you never want to request a jury because they just might convict you.”); People v. Herrero, 756 N.E.2d 234, 245 (Ill. App. Ct. 2001) (“[N]ow they wanted a jury trial and you have to ask yourselves why do they want a jury trial . . . . These individuals are gamblers, they live on the edge, they hope that they can get one of you to be suckered in, one of you to believe that they are not guilty . . . .”); Villarreal v. State, 860 S.W.2d 647, 649 (Tex. App. 1993) (“This man [ ] made a conscious decision to rape a ten-year-old child. But he didn’t do it just once. He forced her to have to come into this courtroom in front of a bunch of strangNo. 06-3815 11 ers.”). But the prosecutor’s remarks here nonetheless focused on Ochoa-Zarate’s “failure to take responsibility” as of the last day of trial, and the prosecutor did not attempt to clear things up after the defense objection. Instead, after the objection, the prosecutor’s next statements addressed a different topic—why Ochoa-Zarate would consent to the search of his minivan.1 The next question is whether Ochoa-Zarate’s conviction can stand in light of the improper comments during rebuttal. Even if a prosecutor’s comments implicate a specific trial right, we will uphold the conviction if the government proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant would have been convicted absent the comments. United States v. Wesley, 422 F.3d 509, 515 (7th Cir. 2005). Although we apply a different standard to prosecutorial comments that are merely improper but do not violate a specific trial right, United States v. Cotnam, 88 F.3d 497-98 (7th Cir. 1996), the government does not dispute that if the comments were improper, the harmlessbeyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard applies. We find that the government has met this burden. The government presented uncontested evidence of numerous lies and inconsistencies that Ochoa-Zarate told to the trooper who stopped his minivan and later to the investi- 1 We also note that although the prosecutor said in the rebuttal, “and I mentioned it in opening argument to you that this case was about this defendant failing to take responsibility for his own actions,” the prosecutor hadn’t made a similar statement in his opening. 12 No. 06-3815 gating agents. Ochoa-Zarate told the trooper he was headed to visit his sister in Chicago for ten days, but he did not have a sister in Chicago. His only sister lived in Sacramento at the time. He also said he did not have his sister’s address or telephone number, even though he had at least thirty-seven other telephone numbers with him in the minivan and claimed that he planned to stay with her for ten days. Perhaps realizing that his story of visiting a sister in Chicago for ten days did not add up, Ochoa-Zarate told a completely different story later in the day when questioned by different agents. During the subsequent interview, Ochoa-Zarate said that he planned to drive the rental vehicle to Chicago, drop it off with Bailey’s people there, and then fly to New York. Bailey, however, testified that they had never had any discussions along those lines. In addition, when Ochoa-Zarate offered to cooperate and told agents he would give them Bailey’s number, the number Ochoa-Zarate supplied was actually for Jose Castenada, the person who had set up the whole plan. There was also the physical evidence: Ochoa-Zarate’s fingerprints were found on the spare tire. Unprompted, he told an agent that his fingerprints might be on the spare tire because Bailey had demonstrated how to change the tire before he left California. But Bailey said that never happened, and that he had no idea where the spare was in the minivan. There were other things as well. After the trooper found drugs hidden in the minivan’s spare tire, Ochoa-Zarate asked how much time he would receive. He also could No. 06-3815 13 not supply the address, and at first, even the first name, of the friend he said he was visiting in New York. This claim of a plan to travel all the way across the country to surprise a friend whose contact information he did not have with an unannounced two-week stay is certainly questionable. In addition, Ochoa-Zarate’s counsel reminded the jury in his closing argument that the government bore the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that Ochoa-Zarate was not required to provide any evidence at all. And during the rebuttal, the prosecutor said, “Defense counsel’s correct, the government does have the burden[; t]he defendant is presumed innocent.” The court’s instructions reiterated these points and also told the jury that its obligation was to decide the facts from the evidence, and that the lawyers’ comments in opening statements and closing arguments were not evidence. We presume that the jury followed the court’s instructions, “absent evidence of an ‘overwhelming probability’ that it was unable to do so.” United States v. Serfling, 504 F.3d 672, 677 (7th Cir. 2007) (quoting United States v. James, 487 F.3d 518, 524 (7th Cir. 2007)). An immediate curative instruction from the court would have given us further comfort, and it is true that none was given here. Cf. id. (“Prompted by Serfling’s timely objection, the district court immediately halted the prosecutor’s improper line of questioning and issued a curative instruction to the jury, the substance of which the court repeated during its final jury instructions.”); see also United States v. Young, 470 U.S. 1, 13-14 (1985) (noting 14 No. 06-3815 benefit of immediate curative instructions). Perhaps that’s because Ochoa-Zarate did not request one. Considering the prosecutor’s brief comments in the context of the record as a whole, we conclude that they do not require a new trial.