Court Opinion

ID: 9537399
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:17:36.112014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:56:37.022120
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE QUINN
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. I believe that the prosecutor’s rebuttal argument to the jury was so inflammatory and so deliberately calculated to appeal to the passions of the jury as to render the defendant’s conviction an egregious violation of fundamental fairness.
In the course of a very brief rebuttal argument the prosecutor stated to the jury:
“Your job is not to be a cheerleader, your job is to say ‘All right, Andy Fullbright, Ron Ferrell, we don’t approve of your jungle, we don’t approve of your retaliation with each other, I don’t care which one got the other the other one gets it from us.’” (Emphasis added.)
Defense counsel moved for a mistrial and the motion was denied.
The People attempt to justify the rebuttal argument as a legitimate response to defense counsel’s allusion in closing argument to the jungle-life, kill-or-be-killed lifestyle of the decedent and defendant. Defense counsel’s argument was made in the context of the court’s instruction on self-defense and the defendant’s right to act upon the appearance that Full-bright was trying to kill him. The prosecutor’s rebuttal argument was not a legitimate response to defense counsel’s argument on self-defense. On the contrary, in a capital case such as this, it was nothing short of an exhortation to mob-retribution and deprived the defendant of a fair trial.
Although the distinction between undignified or intemperate argument on the one hand, and hard but fair advocacy on the other, is not subject to any litmus type of analysis, it is basic to our criminal justice system that a prosecutor, while free to strike hard blows, “is not at liberty to strike foul ones.” Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 633, 79 L.Ed. 1314, 1321 (1935). “It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to prodúce a wrong conviction, as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.” Id.; see also, People v. Walker, 180 Colo. 184, 504 P.2d 1098 (1973).
The prosecutor should not and must not use argument calculated to influence the passions or prejudices of the jury. ABA Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function § 5.8(c). Likewise, the prosecutor must refrain from argument which tends to divert the jury from its duty to decide the case on the evidence, by injecting issues broader than the guilt or innocence of the accused under the controlling law. ABA Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function § 5.8(d).
*133Although the majority opinion relies on People v. Elliston, 181 Colo. 118, 508 P.2d 379 (1973), in deferring to the discretion of the trial court, I rely on the following statement of this court from that same case to point up why the defendant’s conviction should not pass scrutiny under this record:
“This court has repeatedly stated that the duty of a prosecutor is not merely to convict, but to see that justice is done by seeking the truth of the matter. In the type of case tried here, a prosecutor must be particularly careful in his conduct to ensure that the jury tries the case solely on the basis of the facts presented to them. The prosecutor’s improper statements to the jury indicate a misplaced zeal to ‘win’ the case, a lack of self-control, and either a lack of knowledge of — or worse, an indifference to — elementary principles of fairness and legalities.” 181 Colo. at 126, 508 P.2d at 383.
As in People v. Walker, supra, the district attorney here, “in his overzealous effort to convict, prevented the defendant from having a fair trial.” 180 Colo. at 190, 504 P.2d at 1101. “A prosecutor’s duty is to seek justice, not merely to convict.” Id.
The goal of our adversary system does not end with reliable factfind-ing or protection of the innocent from unjust convictions, high as these objectives are. The primary goal of our adversary system is to “preserve the integrity of society itself . . . [by] keeping sound and wholesome the procedures by which society visits its condemnation on an erring member.” ABA Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function and the Defense Function, Introduction at 5 (1971), quoting Fuller, The Adversary System, Talks on American Law 30, 35 (Berman ed. 1960).
In a case such as this the proper inquiry is not merely whether there was enough evidence to support the result. Rather, the proper inquiry is whether the error likely influenced the result or affected the fairness of the trial proceedings. If either occurred, or if one is left in grave doubt about the matter, the conviction should not stand. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946); People v. Wright, 182 Colo. 87, 511 P.2d 460 (1973); People v. Bugarin, 181 Colo. 62, 507 P.2d 875 (1973); People v. Walker, supra.
I cannot say, with fair assurance, that the defendant’s conviction of first-degree murder was not to a substantial degree related to the prosecutor’s totally unjustifiable invocation of revenge or retribution as a basis for the jury’s verdict. Accordingly, I would reverse and remand for a new trial.
I am authorized to say that JUSTICE ERICKSON and JUSTICE DUBOFSKY join me in this dissent.