Court Opinion

ID: 9459193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:13:03.362911+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:03.573224
License: Public Domain

LEVIN H. CAMPBELL, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
While the remarks made were improper and might warrant reversal in the exercise of our supervisory powers were this case to be before us upon appeal from a federal district court, 1 am unable to agree, especially when read in the context of the prosecutor’s extended argument, that they were either so meaningful or prejudicial as to amount to error of constitutional proportions. Admittedly the line between fundamental unfairness, in the due process sense, and a more tolerable species of unfairness, is a hard one to draw, and I can understand the majority’s view that, in a capital trial, there is good reason to resolve doubts for the defendant. Nonetheless, I think the inference to be drawn from the prosecutor’s remarks is far less obvious than does the majority. As I am persuaded that the petitioner had a substantially fair, if less than perfect, trial, I would deny his petition.