Opinion ID: 2638921
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prosecutorial Misconduct in Opening and Closing

Text: [¶ 24] Although Perritt correctly identifies significant portions of the prosecutor's argument as misconduct, we decline to discuss these matters in detail because the conclusions we reached above are dispositive of this appeal. However, we would be remiss if we did not note that significant portions of the prosecutor's argument were improper and may well have constituted reversible error in their own right. The prosecutor exhorted the jury to convict Perritt because her conduct constituted welfare fraud when that simply was not the case. The prosecutor pandered to the jury's passions by encouraging the jury to convict Perritt because her husband was a child molester. He incited the jury to view Perritt as a person who had a criminal mind and to convict her on that basis, when there was no foundation in the evidence for such an argument. He vouched for his own expertise and experience in identifying persons who have criminal minds and beseeched the jury to convict Perritt on that basis. See People v. Siefke, 195 Ill.App.3d 135, 141 Ill.Dec. 833, 551 N.E.2d 1361, 1369-70 (Ill.App. 2 Dist.1990). He counseled the jury to convict Perritt because she had endangered young children, although that was not an element of the offense with which she was charged. Misconduct by the prosecutor of this magnitude often requires reversal of a defendant's conviction because it deprives the defendant of a fair trial. See Strickland v. State, 2004 WY 91, ¶¶ 47-52, 94 P.3d 1034, 1053-54 (Wyo.2004); and Wilde v. State, 2003 WY 93 ¶¶ 26-27, 74 P.3d 699, 710-11 (Wyo.2003).