Opinion ID: 2328430
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Prosecutor's Statements at Closing Argument

Text: Finally, defendant asserts that she was unduly prejudiced by improper comments that the prosecutor made during his final argument with respect to defendant's finances. After presenting evidence that Fortes was unemployed as of October 1999, that she paid her $750 monthly rent on time and often in cash and that she had nice furnishings in her home, the state alluded to the fact that defendant must have been living off the fruits of cocaine sales. In his closing argument, the prosecutor stated, Where is her money coming from? and, after discussing her various expenses, pondered, How is she affording this? The defendant argues that these statements put her in a position in which she would be required to testify in order to rebut an inference that her income was derived from illegal sources. Therefore, she equates the state's actions with making an impermissible attack on defendant's failure to testify, which resulted in a violation of her constitutional right to a fair trial. Although she acknowledges that no objection was made at the time the statements were made, she asks this Court to apply to the instant matter the exception to the raise or waive rule that allows an issue to be preserved for appellate review when basic constitutional rights are involved. [F]or a defendant to preserve a question of prejudicial error in closing argument for our review, he [or she] must not only make an objection at the time, but must make a request for cautionary instructions, see State v. Burns, 524 A.2d 564, 570 (R.I.1987), or move for a mistrial. See State v. Monroe, 714 A.2d 620, 622 (R.I.1998) (mem.). If this procedure is not followed, the issue is not properly preserved for appeal. State v. Donato, 592 A.2d 140, 142-43 (R.I.1991). The defendant is correct in saying that this Court has recognized an exception to the raise or waive rule, which applies only when the defendant's basic constitutional rights are at issue. State v. Estrada, 537 A.2d 983, 987 (R.I.1988). However, to qualify for this exception, a party also must satisfy the three-part test enunciated in State v. Burke, 522 A.2d 725, 731 (R.I.1987). Under Burke, the error complained of must consist of more than harmless error, the record must be sufficient to permit a determination of the issue, and counsel's failure to raise the issue at trial must be attributed to a novel rule of law that counsel could not reasonably have known at the time of trial. Id. Even if defendant's argument involved a matter of constitutional proportion, her assertion of error falls short of satisfying the three-part test in Burke. Although the record may well be sufficient to make a determination on the issue, the prosecutor's statement did not rise to the level of beyond harmless error. Indeed, we find nothing unreasonably prejudicial in the prosecutor's argument. A prosecutor is given considerable latitude in closing argument, as long as the statements pertain only to the evidence presented and represent reasonable inferences from the record. State v. Boillard, 789 A.2d 881, 885 (R.I.2002). The prosecutor's comments about defendant's source of income merely described an inference that the jury reasonably could have drawn from the evidence presented at trial. Moreover, the defendant's assertion fails to satisfy the third part of the Burke test, since at no time does she allege that counsel's failure to raise the issue at trial was attributed to a novel rule of law that he could not reasonably have known at the time of trial. Hence, we consider the issue waived.