Court Opinion

ID: 9700197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:15:49.670199+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:05.301055
License: Public Domain

SCHWELB, Associate Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
In my opinion, most of the remarks by the prosecutor of which Diaz complains, if improper at all, were only marginally so. The few speculative words that the prosecutor spoke about the defendant’s having changed his story after consulting his attorney might providently have been left unsaid, but I do not believe that they represented an attempt by the prosecutor to burden the defendant’s exercise of his constitutional right to counsel. Rather, the prosecutor was attempting to show why Diaz may have changed an earlier account which he originally believed to be exculpatory but which was in fact incriminating.
By and large, in my view, the prosecutor’s arguments on the credibility of the complaining witness and of the defendant were grounded in the record or in reasonable inferences therefrom. They were not “outright” expressions of personal opinion of the
kind which our cases have condemned. See, e.g., Irick v. United States, 565 A.2d 26, 36 (D.C.1989) (citations omitted). The prosecutor’s statement that she has two daughters was inappropriate but, in my opinion, inconsequential.
The trial judge was in the courtroom as the relevant events unfolded, and his vantage point and “feel” for the case were necessarily superior to ours. Under the circumstances, I cannot say that the judge abused his discretion in overruling most of the defense objections. As we noted in Irick, supra, 565 A.2d at 33, “it is our function to review the record for legal error or abuse of discretion by the trial judge, not by counsel.” For my own part, I discern no such error or abuse 'of discretion, and I agree with Judge Reid that the judgment should be affirmed.