Court Opinion

ID: 9684642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:06:27.208036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:58.342502
License: Public Domain

John A. Fogleman, Justice, dissenting. I fully agree with the dissenting opinion of the Chief Justice and join in it. I also take issue with the majority assertion that there are inconsistencies in our cases relating to arguments of the nature of that made in this case that must be resolved. Resolution of inconsistencies is an important responsibility of a court of last resort. The strained attempt of the majority to distinguish Harris v. v. State, 260 Ark. 646, 543 S.W. 2d 459, is a poor demonstration of inconsistency. I submit that the alleged inconsistency in our cases is an illusion. See Hall, The Bounds of Prosecutorial Summation in Arkansas, 28 Ark. Law Rev. 55, 72 and cases cited in the dissenting opinion by Harris, C.J.; Annot., 14 ALR 3d 723, 757, §9; 773, § 15; Supp. 1977, p. 34, § 10. Of course, a prosecuting attorney should not comment on a defendant’s failure to testify. But for an advocate to be prohibited from pointing out that no witness testified except those presented by the state, as a basis for eliminating reasonable doubt and as a factor in determining the weight to be given that evidence, is extreme and Unnecessary. See 14 ALR 3d 723, 729, § 3, Practice Pointers. It reads something into the Fourteenth Amendment that isn’t there. 1 fear that it means that a prosecuting attorney cannot ask a jury to accept even an isolated statement by one witness because no one denies it, when dozens of people could if it were untrue. It is all very well to relegate the prosecuting attorney into the role of a minister of justice in some stages of the prosecutorial process, for he must act in a quasi-judicial capacity. But in closing argument to a jury, his role as an advocate completely overshadows any other role. Then he is society’s — the people’s — only advocate. Sending him into the arena shackled, hamstrung and gagged destroys his ability to act as such, at a time when society’s need for strong advocacy was never greater.