Opinion ID: 1822646
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 20

Heading: Prosecutor's Statements During Closing Argument

Text: Lotter contends that during the State's closing argument at trial, the prosecutor improperly argued the terms of Nissen's agreement and referred to Lotter as evil. During his argument, the prosecutor noted with respect to Nissen that [t]here's no evidence that he's gonna get out in six months and referred to Nissen's testimony that he was going to spend the rest of his life in prison. The prosecutor also stated: Lotter can only be described in one word. And that word is evil. Evil to put a bullet in thesomeone's head because she had the audacity to tell on him. To talk aboutTo make a rape complaint. How dare she make a rape complaint. He puts a bullet in her head. And it's evil shot Lisa Lambert and then evil that shot Phillip DeVine as he begged for his life, and then went back in that other bedroom and made sure, under the chin and a second shot through Lisa Lambert's head. That's what we're dealing with here. You bet we're dealing with evil. But the evil's on trial. Nissen's trial is done; Nissen's not on trial here. This is evil and this is guilty of seven charges. On direct appeal, we held that because trial counsel did not object to the comments and move for a mistrial, any claim of reversible error was waived. Trial counsel testified in the postconviction proceeding that he thought the comment referring to Lotter as evil was a characterization of Lotter's actions and was only marginally objectable, and thus he made no objection. The district court held that the comments about Nissen were proper argument, that the reference to evil was no more than hyperbole resulting in harmless prejudice, and that no substantial miscarriage of justice resulted. We conclude that trial counsel's performance in this regard was neither deficient nor prejudicial.