Court Opinion

ID: 9536692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:05:22.517371+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:55:03.293173
License: Public Domain

*702SHINN, P. J.
I concur in the judgment and in the opinion except in a single particular.  I think defendant’s attorney was unduly restricted in the arguments. He was endeavoring to argue that defendant and one or more of the victims were partners and undertook to state what constitutes a partnership. He was abruptly halted and told the court would instruct as to the law.
The notion that counsel must refrain from ever mentioning any principle of law in argument is a fetish that is often carried to inordinate lengths. Almost all argument is devoted ■ to the matter of the duties of the parties, what they had or had not a right to do, and in criminal cases to the elements of the offense. Instead of instructing the jury before the arguments the court instructs after they are finished. If counsel undertake to discuss the duties of the parties in, we’ll say, a negligence case, and mention familiar provisions of the vehicle code, they are halted and told that the court will state the law. In a criminal case argument is necessarily directed toward the evidence that is relevant to the elements of the offense, and whether those elements have been established. But the jury may have to wait for the instructions to learn what are the elements of the offense. A forceful argument that there was no evidence of an intent to defraud may be regarded as quite irrelevant by a jury that is uninformed that a specific intent must be proved and to inform them of that fact when the argument is cold and largely forgotten cannot recapture its effectiveness. There is no sense in limiting argument to discussion of the evidence relevant to the rights and duties of the parties while the jury is kept in ignorance as to what those rights and duties are. The jury should be informed as to the essential factual issues under applicable principles of law and appropriate instructions should be given before the arguments. I am convinced, however, that there was no error in the trial that was prejudicial.