Court Opinion

ID: 9847374
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:58:37.528041+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:08.438464
License: Public Domain

Zenoff, Sr. J.,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
I find the statement of facts and conclusions of law by the other members of the court acceptable with regard to the guilt phase and some factors of the penalty phase. However, I do not at all agree that the remarks of the prosecutor were not prejudicial even though “we wish they hadn’t been said.”
We have always realized that to a jury the influence of the government, as represented by the prosecutor, is existent. It is *573seldom possible, however, to measure its strength, and it would not be unfair to say that many people adopt the position that if the government says it is so, it must be true.
In a case such as this, we cannot assess the degree of that influence with any real accuracy. One can only surmise that the prosecutor’s references to the unpopular pardon of Richard Nixon, and the tremendously unpopular influx of Cubans at the particular time, were reflected in the prosecutor’s presentation so that the buttering of his words was lost by his tone of voice.
No trial can be perfect, but with a life at stake it would seem that a reduction of the penalty by this court to life in prison without possibility of parole would be more appropriate.