Court Opinion

ID: 9647655
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:43:59.876001+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:08.602363
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
I must dissent. Whether the district attorney labeled appellant’s statement a “cold lie” or “made up out of whole cloth,” the district attorney’s conduct simply is inexcusable. The ABA Standards expressly condemn this very prosecutorial misconduct:
“It is unprofessional conduct for the prosecutor to express his personal belief or opinion as to the truth or falsity of any testimony or evidence of the guilt of the defendant.” ABA Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function, § 5.8(b) (Approved Draft, 1971).
Repeatedly, cases of this Court abide by this standard and grant relief where prosecuting attorneys have so disparaged the defendant. See Commonwealth v. Kuebler, 484 Pa. 358, 399 A.2d 116 (1979) (defendant’s version of events branded a “big lie”); Commonwealth v. Joyner, 469 Pa. 333, 365 A.2d 1233 (1976) (“apparently counsel does not believe his own defendant”); Commonwealth v. Potter, 445 Pa. 284, 285 A.2d 492 (1971) (defendant’s testimony on cross-examination characterized' as “malicious lie”). I can see no reasonable basis for trial counsel’s failure to object to these remarks. *349Cf. Commonwealth v. Black, 480 Pa. 394, 390 A.2d 750 (1978) (no basis for failing to object to regularly condemned prosecutional tactic “of directing juries’ attention to the rear of the courtroom to wait for the deceased to walk through the door”). The district attorney’s attempt to disparage the defendant’s credibility was wholly unnecessary and simply has no place in the courts of this Commonwealth.
I would, unlike the majority, grant appellant a new trial.