Court Opinion

ID: 9619079
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:21:43.596696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:36.440295
License: Public Domain

Thompson, J.,
concurring:
1. In this case the defendant was represented by the Public Defender of Washoe County, an able, experienced, competent lawyer. I, therefore, do not wish to “second guess” about his failure to object to the several matters mentioned in the opinion of the court. It is sufficient to note that this trial was not a sham, a farce, or a pretense. Bean v. State, 86 Nev. 80, 465 P.2d 133 (1970). Moreover, the prosecutor was free to discuss all matters of evidence received before the jury and should not be faulted for doing so. That is the way cases are tried.
2. Comment upon the defendant’s silence when arrested was harmless within the context of this case. The defendant testified fully at trial. Any possible prejudicial inference to be drawn from the officer’s comment upon the defendant’s silence when arrested loses significance in the face of the testimony offered by him in court before the jury. Indeed, the jury permissibly could infer that had the defendant chosen not to remain silent, his statements would have substantially conformed to his testimony at trial. Shepp v. State, 87 Nev. 179, 484 P.2d 563 (1971). Respectfully, the majority opinion is too loose since it fails to distinguish comment upon an accused’s pretrial silence in a case where he later testified fully, from the case where he did not testify at all. In the former situation, such comment is diminished in significance since the accused has testified fully before those who are to decide his guilt or innocence, while in the latter situation we must evaluate the prosecutor’s comment upon silence in a vacuum and guess as to its effect.
I concur, with the reservations just expressed.