Court Opinion

ID: 9728799
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:16:45.984685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:52.213756
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
I cannot agree that a prosecuting attorney may offer at closing argument testimony which no witness was permitted *59to present. Crucial to the Commonwealth’s case were a series of photographs taken during the incidents that gave rise to this prosecution. Conviction clearly depended on the jury’s conclusion that some of the men depicted in the photographs were the defendants. I cannot conclude that the prosecutor’s comments concerning the photographs were permissible.
Although the photographs were admitted into evidence, the trial court carefully refused to allow testimony that those in the photographs were the defendants. This, the court noted, was for the jury. See Record at 1415a-53a. Moreover, the photographs were not shown to the jury during the prosecution’s case. It was only during the prosecutor’s closing argument that the jury was shown the photographs. And the record is clear that during this argument the prosecutor was permitted to offer the equivalent of his own identification testimony concerning the photographs, testimony which no other witness had given. For example, having displayed a photograph to the jury, the prosecutor remarked:
“Now, I think you have firmly in mind the photograph. We’re talking about this individual, this individual, this picture you just saw, this individual, which appears to be an enlargement taken by Sergeant Thomas. And I suggest to you, members of the jury, that when you look at those pictures and look at this individual, the distinctive clothing, I suggest everything about him, the tattoos, the hair style, the stature, the size, that you should conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that is Richard McLain.”
Appendix to Brief for Appellants at 28. In the circumstances, such comments were obviously improper and prejudicial.
The prosecutor’s summation here was plainly not, as the majority would have it, an “unorthodox” review of the evidence, nor was it merely a suggestion to the jury of what they might believe the photographs showed. Rather the prosecutor’s obvious aim was to place his own identification testimony into evidence. This the prosecutor may not do. *60Orthodox or unorthodox, it was impermissible and inflammatory and appellants are entitled to a new trial.
LARSEN, J., joins this dissenting opinion.