Opinion ID: 2998771
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Closing Remarks Regarding Mohammed’s

Text: Truthfulness Johnson additionally argues that the prosecutor, in closing argument, improperly suggested that the government’s and the court’s actions ensured Mohammed’s truthfulness. He first objects to the prosecutor’s recital in closing of the circumstances of Mohammed’s appearing to testify. The prosecutor described Mohammed’s initial reluctance to testify and Judge Kennelly’s ensuing order of immunity, which he said “takes away Kenny Mohammed’s ability to assert the Fifth and forces him to come here and tell you the truth. And that is exactly what he did.” The prosecutor immediately thereafter detailed the substance of Mohammed’s testimony and compared it to other evidence that “corroborates what Kenny Mohammed told you from the stand.” Also, when relating Mohammed’s testimony, the prosecutor repeatedly intoned, “he told you the truth.” These remarks about the witness’s truthfulness, however, are acceptable when placed in context with corroborating evidence. For instance, in United States v. Morgan, this Court found that the prosecutor did not inject his personal opinion into the trial by characterizing the witness as “an honest person.” 113 F.3d 85, 89 (7th Cir. 1997). Because the comment was immediately preceded by the prosecutor’s argument that corroborating evidence showed the witness to be truthful, the prosecutor’s comment was “a permissible inference from the evidence, not improper vouching.” Id. at 90. The same is true here. Where the government characNo. 04-2406 11 terizes a witness’s credibility “based on the evidence,” the argument is proper because it is based on the record instead of “the prosecutor’s own personal belief.” United States v. Clarke, 227 F.3d 874, 884 (7th Cir. 2000). Because the prosecutor premised Mohammed’s truthfulness on “all of the evidence in this case” and stated that the jury must “consider all of it together,” his remarks constituted a permissible credibility argument based on the evidence, not improper vouching based on his personal belief. Second, Johnson challenges the government’s later remarks in closing to the effect that Mohammed “is here under an order” and “understands he needs to tell the truth” if he wanted to avoid a possible return to jail. Again, though, where a prosecutor comments during closing argument on a witness’s veracity but then follows with a comparison to other evidence presented at trial, the comment reflects “evidence presented at trial and not the prosecutor’s personal opinion.” United States v. Goodapple, 958 F.2d 1402, 1410 (7th Cir. 1992). As described above, the prosecutor in this case acted properly—he surveyed the evidence corroborating Mohammed’s testimony and from that evidence assessed his credibility. As in the following example, the prosecutor’s closing argument portrayed Mohammed as credible based on the evidence taken as a whole: He told you the truth, and he told you that he got heroin from the defendant. He told you the truth, that he sold that heroin to Henry Adebayo, and he told you the truth, that he took the money from that sale and gave it to the defendant, the supplier of that heroin. That was the brokered transaction. You know that Kenny Mohammed told you the truth from all of the evidence in this case. The evidence in this case corroborates what Kenny Mohammed told you from that stand. 12 No. 04-2406 The prosecutor then proceeded to summarize that corroborating evidence, discussing the recordings of Mohammed receiving and making calls before the transactions, the testimony of agents who witnessed the wine-colored Corolla and Mohammed’s movements at both transactions, the expert testimony of Agent Coleman regarding the typical structure of these drug transactions, and the evasive moves made by Johnson in the wine-colored Corolla. Thus, the prosecutor properly argued that the evidence compelled the conclusion that Mohammed complied with his immunity agreement by testifying truthfully. See Clarke, 227 F.3d at 885 (holding that the prosecutor’s statement about a witness’s truthfulness was proper “because the evidence showed that [the witness] complied with the plea agreement, not that [he] told the truth simply because he entered into the plea agreement.”). Finally, Johnson challenges the prosecutor’s rebuttal remarks again referencing the immunity order. One of defense counsel’s arguments in closing was that “Kenny Mohammed wasn’t telling the truth. He had every incentive to lie.” In rebuttal, the prosecutor responded by arguing that Mohammed understood “that he could be prosecuted for perjury based on what he told you in Court today if it turned out that what he said was not true,” and further that “Kenny Mohammed has no incentive in this case to not tell you the truth.” Yet again, however, the prosecutor placed these remarks in context by telling the jury that it