Opinion ID: 775760
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Judicial Intervention and Prosecutorial Misconduct

Text: 64 Defendants argue that Judge Casey intervened excessively and that this case should be remanded to a different judge because of the excessive interventions, the district court's other errors, and its unduly harsh sentencing. 65 Reversal for judicial bias is appropriate only where an examination of the entire record demonstrates that the jurors have been impressed with the trial judge's partiality to one side to the point that this became a factor in the determination of the jury. United States v. Salameh, 152 F.3d 88, 128 (2d Cir. 1998) (internal quotation marks omitted). After reviewing the entire record, we conclude that defendants have not made the required showing and therefore reject their argument. 66 Hunter argues that the government committed prosecutorial misconduct by implying in summation that Hunter was involved in a shooting at the Union Street site. He also contends that the government impinged on his Fifth Amendment rights by claiming that certain government contentions were undisputed. Neither contention is persuasive. The jury heard a tape in which Hunter promised to bark on a rival coalition leader who was causing trouble at the site as well as testimony that there was a shoot-out at the site and that Johnson rewarded Hunter by ordering that his workers be placed at the Union Street site. Because a reasonable juror could interpret this evidence as demonstrating Hunter's involvement in the conspiracy surrounding the shooting, the prosecution was entitled to comment on it. 67 It is only improper for the government to characterize its proof as uncontradicted where the Government's evidence on a material issue in dispute could be rebutted solely by defendant's testimony. United States v. Hart, 407 F.2d 1087, 1090 (2d Cir. 1969). Defendant fails to show that the AUSA's comments related to disputed issues or to evidence that could be rebutted only by his testimony. Therefore, this argument also fails.