Opinion ID: 2395763
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Alleged misrepresentation of Williams' prior criminal record

Text: In his seventh ground for relief, Williams asserts that his death sentence should be vacated, because the district attorney misrepresented Williams' record of prior convictions in his argument to the jury concerning the (d)(9) aggravator. Preliminarily, Williams challenges the district attorney's use of the word murder in his statements to the jury, because Williams' homicide conviction was for manslaughter. Williams also claims that the district attorney distorted the circumstances of Williams' other Massachusetts convictions by claiming that Williams shot his victim, when, in fact, there is no basis in the record to support that conclusion. [12] Williams' assertions of prosecutorial misconduct and error on the part of the trial court in this regard are waived. Additionally, his claims again overlap with those made on direct appeal, in which this Court expressly reviewed, and indeed quoted, most of the very passages from the trial transcript about which Williams complains here. [13] To the extent that Williams' efforts can be seen as asserting new claims, and such claims implicate the stewardship of trial counsel, they also must be rejected. The district attorney's actual presentation to the jury of the record of Williams' Massachusetts convictions was factual and, in large part, taken directly from the record of those convictions. While Williams has identified one actual and another possible misstatement made during the district attorney's summation, [14] the trial court repeatedly cautioned the jury that the advocates' arguments were not evidence. Moreover, as previously noted, the record contains uncontradicted evidence of Williams' four convictions for felonies involving the use or threat of violence independent of the two challenged in this claim (three Pennsylvania and one Massachusetts robbery convictions). In light of the above, it cannot be said that any failure on trial counsel's part undermined the reliability of the penalty verdict. Accordingly, no relief is due.