Opinion ID: 738948
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Griffin Error

Text: 73 Appellants contend that the district court erred in denying a motion for a mistrial based on the government's reference in closing argument to the fact that certain Appellants did not take the stand. 74 Griffin claims are reviewed de novo. United States v. Mende, 43 F.3d 1298, 1301 (9th Cir.1995). Prosecutors are forbidden to comment on a defendant's decision not to testify. Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 615 (1985). Prosecutorial comment on the defendant's failure to testify mandates reversal where such comment is extensive, where an inference of guilt from silence is stressed to the jury as a basis for conviction, and where the evidence could have supported acquittal. United States v. Kennedy, 714 F.2d 968, 976 (9th Cir.1983) (quoting Anderson v. Nelson, 390 U.S. 523 (1968) (per curiam)), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1034 (1984). Nevertheless, where the prosecutorial comment was a single isolated statement, where it did not stress any reference to guilt, and where it was followed by curative instructions, we have been reluctant to reverse. Id. 75 In the present case, the comment was not extensive nor did it invite the jury to use the silence of those Appellants who did not testify as a basis for conviction. In the relevant portion of the closing argument, the prosecutor was trying to argue that those Appellants who did take the stand failed to acknowledge that the dialers in the telemarketing companies made misrepresentations to the people they called. The prosecutor failed to differentiate between those Appellants who had taken the stand and those who did not. He then explained that only Laros and Cooper, who did testify at trial, failed to acknowledge the misrepresentations. 76 After the district court sustained a defense objection to the prosecutor's statement, the prosecutor then told the jury that the Appellants who had not testified had every right to remain silent. Appellants also objected to the prosecutor's corrective comment. The substance of the brief corrective comment made by the prosecutor was no different from the jury instruction given by the district court about a defendant's constitutional right not to testify. 77 The prosecutor's brief statements in closing argument--though close--were not serious enough to merit reversal because of the court's ensuing curative instruction.