Opinion ID: 1498296
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: improper Statements of Fact

Text: The third area of our concern deals with improper statements of fact made by the prosecutor. The attorney for the prosecution, like other lawyers, is, of course, limited to making comments based upon the evidence and fair deductions and inferences therefrom. Commonwealth v. Revty, 448 Pa. 512, 295 A.2d 300 (1972). See also ABA Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function, § 5.9. [5] See also, Commonwealth v. Cronin, 464 Pa. 138, 346 A.2d 59 (1975). We mention only a remark in which the prosecutor attempted to refute the defendant's argument that he had not actually confessed but that the police had concocted the alleged confession from statements made by codefendants. It was the contention of the Commonwealth that the defendant, being proud of his participation in the assault and killing, had willingly confessed. Thus the assistant district attorney told the jury: Well, don't you see what happened was when he was first brought in there, he was on top of the world. His name was spread all across every paper in the country. Matter of fact, I recall I myself was out of the country, and at that time I read about it. It was even in Time Magazine the next week. They were front-page and they are proud of it. (R. 945) This is a flagrant example of a prosecuting attorney giving unsworn testimony based upon matters not of record. Such personal assertion of fact within the prosecutor's own knowledge have no place in a criminal trial. See DR7-106(C) (3) of the Code of Professional Responsibility. The references on this case to pre-trial publicity are doubly offensive, for such publicity, if extensive enough, can of course be the occasion for a change of venue. [6] See Pa.R.Crim.P. 313. For the prosecutor to go out of his way to recall to the jury the publicity that attended the commission of this crime was uncalled for and unconscionable. [7] By our decision today we do not mean to suggest that a prosecutor may not argue his case forcefully or that he must be [shorn] of all oratorical emphasis. DiCarlo v. U.S., 6 F.2d 364, 368 (2d Cir. 1925), cert. denied, 268 U.S. 706, 45 S.Ct. 640, 69 L.Ed.2d 1168 (1925). See also Commonwealth v. Cronin, 464 Pa. 138, 346 A.2d 59 (1975); Commonwealth v. McNeal, 456 Pa. 394, 400, 319 A.2d 669 (1974). A prosecutor is free to argue reasonable inferences from the record. What he may not do is to interject his personal beliefs as to either the guilt of the defendant or the credibility of a witness nor may he argue from facts which may be within his personal knowledge but which are not of record. All of these limits were exceeded in this case. Judgments of sentence reversed, and the case remanded for a new trial.