Court Opinion

ID: 9469333
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:37:50.059083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:20.244322
License: Public Domain

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
Specially Concurring:
I agree that we must reverse this conviction. I write separately to explain the special circumstances that require reversal notwithstanding the defendant’s failure to offer a timely objection.
Prosecutors must often proceed to trial with cases consisting entirely of testimony from informants, accomplices, or witnesses with prior criminal records. The prosecutor had nothing more here. All essential witnesses in this bank robbery trial were unsavory characters.
The primary prosecution witness, Cathy McClain, admitted robbing the bank and said that West had participated. His theory of defense was that McClain’s boyfriend, Robert Sisto, was the masked robber and that McClain was protecting Sisto by implicating West.
In his first trial, a jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial. That mistrial may indicate that the jury believed neither West nor McClain, or could not agree on which to believe.
Upon retrial, West produced Sisto as a witness. By doing so, he offered the jury a simple but determinative credibility choice. They could believe Sisto and acquit, or they could disbelieve him and convict.
The critical nature of Sisto’s credibility did not escape the prosecutor’s notice. During cross-examination, she asked Sisto to identify McClain from a photospread. As he examined the photographs, the prosecutor perceived a signal from West to the witness, which she challenged immediately by questioning Sisto about it.
The court refused to permit the question, and the prosecutor brought to the stand an associate in her office who testified that she saw a hand signal. This directly impugned the credibility of both Sisto and West. West testified in rebuttal after the hand signal incident, but failed to deny or to discuss it.
As the ease neared submission to the jury, counsels’ arguments focused on credibility. They reminded the jury of the key witnesses’ character, reputation, and manner of testifying. Defense counsel asked the jury to judge the credibility of the witnesses, including the Assistant U.S. Attorney, based on what they saw and perceived.
The prosecutor responded by telling the jury to believe her witness because the witness was an officer of the court and a member of the U.S. Attorney’s staff. Moreover, she gave the jury no option to conclude that the witness was mistaken, leaving it to decide either that she accurately described what actually happened or committed perjury.
For the jury to acquit after this summation would have required it to reject the prestige and moral persuasiveness of the government and conclude unanimously that a government attorney purposefully lied. To convict they needed only concede to the greater wisdom of the government. That was an unfair choice to be offered.
*658In this case, in which credibility of witnesses was critical and probably determinative, the prosecutor’s reference to her office and her associate may have appeared to the jury to provide a basis for conviction when all other evidence was dubious. Although the jurors may have been unable to resolve whether Sisto or McClain was telling the truth, they certainly could conclude that the attorney witness was truthful, even if only because the prosecutor told them that, as a government attorney and officer of the court, she would not lie.
I have little trouble concluding that the prosecutor’s remarks were improper. Indeed, the government hardly argues otherwise.
We should not have to remind prosecutors of the relevant ABA Standard for Criminal Justice. Nevertheless, this commentary to Standard 3-5.8 is appropriate:
Expressions of personal opinion by the prosecutor are a form of unsworn, unchecked testimony and tend to exploit the influence of the prosecutor’s office and undermine the objective detachment that should separate a lawyer from the cause being argued.
ABA, Standard for Criminal Justice 3-5.8, Commentary (1980) (The Prosecution Function — Argument to the Jury).
The improper argument here is a special kind of personal opinion and another example of prosecutorial overkill. It exploited directly the influence of the government, in this case to bolster the testimony of the witness. Moreover, this type of improper argument is generated only when the prosecutor perceives the case personally, rather than acting in the role of an advocate for the public interest in a fair and impartial determination of guilt or innocence.
We cannot characterize this error as harmless. When he discharged the jurors, the trial judge described to them how credibility in the case had been “more highly focused” than usual.
Although we must reverse, I seriously question the defendant’s failure to object. His counsel sat silently through the prosecutor’s rebuttal summation, permitted the judge to instruct the jury, and said nothing as the jury retired. Only when the judge brought counsel together to work out an appropriate answer to the jury’s questions was a mistrial motion offered.
We often have said that failure to object to improper argument waives any error. See, e.g., United States v. Potter, 616 F.2d 384, 393 n.16 (9th Cir. 1979), cert, denied, 449 U.S. 832, 101 S.Ct. 101, 66 L.Ed.2d 37 (1980). We review, if at all, because the misconduct sufficiently affects the trial to constitute plain error. United States v. Berry, 627 F.2d 193, 199 (9th Cir. 1980), cert, denied, 449 U.S. 1113,101 S.Ct. 925, 66 L.Ed.2d 843 (1981). See also United States v. Singleterry, 646 F.2d 1014, 1018 (5th Cir. 1981); United States v. Cox, 633 F.2d 871, 875 (9th Cir. 1980), cert, denied, 454 U.S. 844, 102 S.Ct. 159, 70 L.Ed.2d 130 (1981).
We reach the issue in this case because the trial judge denied West’s mistrial motion on the merits rather than on its untimeliness. United States v. Dixon, 562 F.2d 1138, 1143 (9th Cir. 1977).
We reverse, but we must be mindful that counsel have a duty to the court, an obligation at least to permit the judge to conduct a trial that finally determines the question at issue. A defendant may not remain silent in response to error and take his chances with the verdict before moving for a mistrial. Nor may he permit error to go unchallenged, then ask the appellate court to reverse the conviction.
West’s counsel did not object as the prosecutor spoke. She gave the trial judge no opportunity to correct the error or lessen its impact, if that were possible. A judge must have a fair chance to admonish the jury to disregard improper statements, to give a curative instruction at the close of trial, or to take other steps to remove the taint.
Only after the jury retired to deliberate did the defendant complain. Defense counsel moved for a mistrial, but failed to ask to have the jury returned and instructed to disregard the prosecutor’s improper remarks. Such a request would have given *659the judge another opportunity to correct the error.
I have not concluded that the improper bolstering by the prosecutor necessarily could have been made harmless by a curative instruction, but neither do I conclude that it could not have been cured. Had the judge been given the chance to mitigate the damage, West may have been acquitted. Instead, he faces a third trial.
Judicial economy is not a phantom concern. As caseloads multiply and delay increases, we risk greater injustice from delay and hasty decisions. Trial and appellate judges bear the burden by taking on heavier workloads. Trial counsel must share the responsibility by asserting their rights at trial or not at all.