Court Opinion

ID: 9785059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:01:42.181347+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:04.239165
License: Public Domain

RUIZ, Associate Judge,
concurring:
I write separately because I do not agree with the majority’s framing or analysis of the central issue in the case, one we have not previously addressed, concerning defense counsel’s reasonable reliance on representations made by the prosecutor during opening statement. In particular, the question is what consequences and remedies flow when the prosecutor does not follow through on representations on which the defense has relied to its detriment, promising to the jury that the defense will introduce evidence — appellant’s statement to the police — corroborating appellant’s claim of self-defense. In this case, the trial court should have given a curative instruction to mitigate prejudice to the defense when the prosecutor’s trial tactics departed from his initial representation, leaving defense counsel unable to fulfill his promise to present evidence of appellant’s statement of self-defense. I concur in the result, however, as I agree that appellant’s convictions should be affirmed because any error was harmless.
1. Appellant’s Statements to Police
As the core of this appeal are two statements appellant made to the police shortly after the stabbing of Steven Boyd for which he was subsequently charged and convicted. The police followed a trail of blood from where the stabbing occurred to appellant’s home. In one statement, made at his home, a nervous and bloodied appellant said he had been “jumped” by some men on Kenilworth Avenue. When he was taken (voluntarily) from his home to the police station, appellant first repeated that he had been “jumped,” but, when questioned, corrected his statement. He said that an enraged Boyd, who was high on drugs and alcohol, had attacked him with a knife, but that he (appellant) had been able to grab the knife and stabbed Boyd in self-defense.1 Appellant’s claim had some independent corroboration. There was evidence presented at trial that Boyd, who is twenty years younger than appellant (then in his early 50s), was a heavy cocaine user who used cocaine “every day” since 1998. Boyd said he had not used cocaine on the *15day of the stabbing, but he tested positive for cocaine when he was taken to the hospital after the stabbing. Boyd also admitted to having had two beers on that day. Boyd testified that he had been angry at appellant, whom he described as “a quiet guy,” and had confronted him about a perceived offense (a non-violent sexual proposal) appellant made the previous evening to a woman in whom Boyd apparently had a romantic interest. Boyd told appellant, “God is going to get you.” According to Boyd, after he confronted appellant, he turned to leave, and appellant stabbed him in the back. Boyd claimed he never threw any punches at appellant. No one else saw how the fight began. An eyewitness to the fight, Ms. Bowens, saw the two men fighting. She testified that initially Boyd “was actually getting the best of [appellant] and somehow [appellant] overpowered him and [Boyd] went to the ground.” Another eyewitness, James Taylor, Ms. Bowen’s uncle, also testified that he saw Boyd punch appellant. Boyd suffered twelve knife wounds in all, including nine deep stab wounds to the back; appellant had superficial cuts to his hand and knee.
Because appellant admitted that he had stabbed Boyd, at trial appellant’s guilt or innocence turned on whether the jury believed that he had acted in self-defense. In opening statement, the prosecutor mentioned appellant’s first false exculpatory statement to the police (that he had been “jumped” by some men), but said nothing of the second, exculpating statement in which he admitted the stabbing, but said it was in self-defense.2 Apparently, the prosecutor had formulated a plan — not shared with the court or the defense — to introduce as an admission the first false exculpatory statement appellant made to the police at his house, but to object, on hearsay grounds, to the exculpatory part of appellant’s statement to the police, made at the police station. Concerned that the jury would take away from the prosecutor’s partial presentation of what appellant had said to the police that appellant’s claim of self-defense had been a later, trial-oriented fabrication, defense counsel sought to complete the picture. He told the jury in his opening statement that appellant had indeed initially dissembled but, defense counsel added, “you will hear” that immediately after, at the police station, appellant admitted to stabbing Boyd in self-defense.3 The presentation of evidence at trial did not develop, however, as counsel had previewed for the jury. When it came time for the government to call the officer through whom it planned to *16introduce the first part of appellant’s statement to the police, the prosecutor asked for a ruling on whether introduction of appellant’s false exculpatory statement would “open the door” to admission of appellant’s second statement, that he stabbed Boyd in self-defense. Citing the rule of completeness, the trial judge ruled that if the government introduced the first part of the statement, it could not object to the defense’s introduction of the rest of the statement. The prosecutor then changed course, and decided not to introduce the part of appellant’s statement to the police that he had mentioned to the jury in opening statement. This left the defense without the mechanism the prosecutor’s opening statement had provided to present to the jury the timely claim of self-defense promised to the jury during the defense’s opening statement. Defense counsel argued that appellant would be prejudiced if counsel failed to follow up on his promise to the jury. He filed three motions for a mistrial; in the alternative, counsel asked for a curative instruction. The trial judge denied the mistrial motions and did not give any curative instruction. Instead, the judge relied on the general instruction that “statements of counsel are not evidence.”
2. The Prosecutor’s Opening Statement Was Improper
This case raises the question whether the prosecutor improperly mentioned in opening that appellant had made an incul-patory statement to the police, without first seeking a ruling from the trial judge on the legal viability of the prosecutor’s planned strategy to introduce only the in-culpatory part of appellant’s statement, without introducing the exculpatory part of the statement.4 Here, the prosecutor had good reason to doubt that his strategy would succeed. As the government’s brief acknowledges, we have not raled on application of the rule of completeness to the situation presented here, and, as the majority notes, our opinion in Johns v. United States, 434 A.2d 463 (D.C.1981), casts doubt on the prosecutor’s operative assumption. See ante at 11.5 Under the circumstances, the prosecutor should have presented his planned strategy to the trial judge for a ruling in advance so as to avoid mentioning evidence in opening statement that would not be introduced at trial, as happened here. “It is improper for counsel to ... refer in an opening statement to evidence without a good faith basis for believing that such evidence will be introduced.” Najafi v. United States, 886 A.2d 103, 108 (D.C.2005) (citing Frederick v. United States, 741 A.2d 427, 440 n. 25 (D.C.1999) (citing ABA Standards for Criminal Justioe 7.4 (The Defense Function) (1993))). That the comment was made in opening statement does not exclude it from “the obligation of the prosecutor to avoid making statements of fact to *17the jury not supported by proper evidence introduced during trial.” Gaither v. United States, 134 U.S.App.D.C. 154, 172, 413 F.2d 1061, 1079 (1969). Opening statements must be careful to hew to the evidence to be presented at trial because “[fjirst impressions are not easy to dispel.” Najafi, 886 A.2d at 108. Thus, we have said, there is “no doubt regarding where the obligation to be fair and accurate lies.” Anthony v. United States, 935 A.2d 275, 284 (D.C.2007). “It is incumbent upon the prosecutor ‘to take care to ensure that statements made in opening and closing arguments are supported by evidence introduced at trial.’” Id. (quoting United States v. Small, 316 U.S.App.D.C. 15, 19, 74 F.3d 1276,1280 (1996)). In light of this well-established obligation, I take exception to the prosecutor’s comment to the trial court, quoted by the majority, that counsel had “gambled” in their opening statements and that “you take the risk.” See ante at 6. The prosecutor should have sought a ruling from the judge, not taken a “gamble.” We have rejected that sporting theory of justice; a criminal trial is not a crap shoot.
Even though the prosecutor’s opening was improper, see United States v. Novak, 918 F.2d 107, 109 (10th Cir.1990) (noting that the opportunity to present an “objective summary” in opening statement “does not allow the prosecution to refer to evidence of questionable admissibility”), I do not believe that the prosecutor should have been forced to follow through on the promise to introduce the evidence he previewed in opening statement. When the court’s ruling proved that the prosecutor’s strategy was legally wanting, the choice whether to introduce appellant’s statement as part of the government’s case, as he had said he would during opening (including weighing the consequences to the government’s case of failing to follow through with the jury), was for the prosecution to make.
3. Defense Counsel Reasonably Relied on the Prosecutor’s Opening Statement
The question for the trial court — and for this court on appeal — is what measures should have been taken to mitigate the prejudice to the defense resulting from the prosecutor’s opening and later change in strategy as the trial progressed. Relying on the prosecutor’s opening statement, defense counsel announced to the jury that the defense would present evidence that corroborated appellant’s claim of self-defense. This was a promise that the defense would have fulfilled, but was prevented from fulfilling, by the prosecutor’s mid-trial change of course after the trial judge’s evidentiary ruling. The majority concludes, in essence, that because the prosecutor cannot be held to its promise to the jury, the defense has no remedy for its good faith, detrimental reliance on the prosecutor’s in-court representation.
An unfortunate consequence of the majority’s analysis is that it condones the prosecutor’s failure to obtain the judge’s ruling before making an assertion in opening statement that was legally questionable; it also implies that defense counsel should mistrust, and be on guard against, representations made in open court by the prosecutor. As the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has emphasized, however, “the federal courts generally, and this court in particular, have strictly enforced,” Gaither, 134 U.S.App.D.C. at 172, 413 F.2d at 1079, the prosecutor’s obligation to “take care to ensure that statements made in opening and closing arguments to the jury are supported by evidence introduced at trial.” United States v. Small, 316 U.S.App.D.C. 15, 19, 74 F.3d 1276, 1280 (1996); see Anthony, 935 A.2d at 284 (citing Small). Lowering the standards expected of prosecutors also undermines the civility and effi*18ciency of court proceedings that this court and the Bar have so assiduously tried to promote. We have emphasized the importance of the reliance that counsel can place on each other’s representations in civil trials. See Miranda v. Contreras, 754 A.2d 277, 281 (D.C.2000) (“As colleagues at bar and officers of the court, and to ensure the efficient, accurate and just operation of judicial proceedings, counsel must be able reasonably to rely on representations made by fellow counsel in the context of litigation. Conversely, counsel should not be able to reap the windfall of his or her misrepresentation to fellow counsel.”). No less should be required in the context of a criminal proceeding, where the public’s interest in seeing that justice is done and the court’s role in assuring a fair proceeding are paramount.
As the majority recognizes, we have held prosecutors to the consequences of their representations concerning trial strategy when, for example, the prosecutor misinformed defense counsel that the defendant had no impeachable convictions; when the defendant took the stand at trial, the prosecutor was not permitted to impeach him with prior convictions. Wilson v. United States, 606 A.2d 1017, 1020 (D.C.1992), overruled on other grounds by Lyons v. United States, 683 A.2d 1066, 1067 (D.C.1996).
The majority distinguishes this principle of reliance on the ground that the cases we have decided involved representations made pre-trial, “designed to promote the efficient administration of justice,” and that, because the “government is obligated to respond accurately and unambiguously to pretrial inquiries made by the court,” the defense is “entitled to rely on” the prosecutor’s responses. See ante at 10, quoting Wilson, 606 A.2d at 1020, 1021, 1023. The critical factor, however, is not whether a representation is made before trial or during trial, but whether opposing counsel was entitled to rely on the representation in preparing and presenting the defense case.6 The majority does not explain why defense counsel should not be as entitled to rely on representations made by the prosecutor in open court during trial as on those made pre-trial. See Rosser v. United States, 381 A.2d 598, 609 (D.C.1977) (noting in the context of incomplete discovery that “our decision here turns on the government’s incorrect representation ... in open court ... coupled with the prosecution’s implied delivery of [witness’s] complete grand jury testimony ... ”). It is true that representations made by a prosecutor pretrial can lead the defense to forgo certain strategies and defenses. It is at least equally true, however, that the defense can be seriously prejudiced by representations made during trial. Once trial strategy is formulated and the case has been previewed in opening and is being presented to the jury, the defense has less room to maneuver. Therefore, any disruption caused by the defense’s detrimental reliance on the prosecutor’s representations at trial, when the defense has fewer options, has the potential for serious prejudice. In this case, defense counsel responded to the misim-pression created by the prosecutor’s opening by telling the jurors in the defense opening statement that they “would hear” appellant’s statement to the police that he *19had stabbed Boyd in self-defense. Defense counsel’s response was based entirely on the representation made by the prosecutor in his opening statement that the other (inculpatory) part of appellant’s statement would be introduced during trial. Defense counsel’s action was reasonably based on the exigencies of the rule of completeness, as explained in the trial judge’s ruling. Defense counsel offered to show the trial judge the opening statement he had drafted before he heard the prosecutor’s representation to prove that, otherwise, the defense opening would not have promised the jury that the exculpatory statement also would be introduced.7 It is the inability to fulfill that promise, which remained unfulfilled not because of defense counsel’s doing but as a direct result of the prosecutor’s initial carelessness and change in strategy, that appellant claims unfairly prejudiced his claim of self-defense before the jury.
It is important to note that this case is not like Frazier v. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731, 89 S.Ct. 1420, 22 L.Ed.2d 684 (1969), or Owens v. United States, 497 A.2d 1086 (D.C.1985), on which the majority relies. Frazier recognized that “[m]any things might happen during the course of the trial which would prevent the presentation of all the evidence described in advance” during opening statement. 394 U.S. at 736, 89 S.Ct. 1420 (emphasis added). Here, unlike in Frazier where the witness the government “reasonably,” id., expected to call invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify, nothing prevented the government from introducing the part of appellant’s statement to the police that it had said it would introduce during opening statement. The trial judge’s ruling in this case did not prevent the prosecutor from introducing the statement; rather, the trial judge’s ruling made clear that the rule of completeness would not permit the prosecutor’s plan to present only the incul-patory part of appellant’s statement and that fairness required that the jury be apprised of the exculpatory part of appellant’s statement as well. This ruling was not what the prosecutor had hoped for and not to his liking, so the prosecutor changed his mind and chose not to introduce appellant’s statement. Because the defense could not introduce the statement itself over the prosecutor’s hearsay objection, it could not fulfill its promise to the jury that it “would hear” that appellant had early on asserted to the police that he had stabbed Boyd in self-defense. That is a critical distinction between this case and Frazier and Owens. In those cases, the issue was whether the government had been unfairly advantaged by the prosecutor’s reasonable mention in opening statement of facts helpful to its case that were not supported by evidence introduced at trial. Frazier, 394 U.S. at 734, 89 S.Ct. 1420; Owens, 497 A.2d at 1091; cf. Najafi, 886 A.2d at 104 (prosecutor repeatedly implied during opening, without any evidentiary support, that defendant was “running a business” of selling drugs). That was a concern here as well; but neither Frazier nor Owens involved the additional prejudice resulting from the defense’s reliance on the prosecutor’s opening statement to make its own evidentiary promise to the jury.
*204. Remedies in Mitigation
Having concluded that defense counsel relied, and reasonably so, on the prosecutor’s opening statement, the question is what remedies should have been employed to mitigate the inevitable prejudice that resulted from the prosecutor’s change of course following the trial judge’s ruling. Defense counsel moved for mistrial three times. The first was during the government’s case, as soon as it became clear that the government would not be introducing appellant’s statement to the police. In this regard, this case is not like Salmon v. United States, quoted by the majority, see ante at 12, where the entire case had been presented and the jury had already retired to deliberate. 719 A.2d 949, 956 (D.C.1997). A mistrial always will incur some cost to the system. Nonetheless, mistrial must be granted, and those costs borne, when “the danger of prejudice has undermined the reliability of the proceedings to such a measure that the drastic remedy of mistrial is necessary.” Anthony, 935 A.2d at 287.8
There was a much less-drastic remedy available here. Defense counsel requested a curative instruction that “tells the jury that only the Government can introduce the defendant’s statement. And if they have any questions about that, that they may infer that that evidence would have been harmful to the Government along the lines of ... the missing evidence instruction.” To the trial court’s first reaction, “I hear very few new things nowadays. But this is the first time that I have ever heard this argument,” defense counsel responded that “this is a rare situation, Your Honor.” The prosecutor objected to the curative instruction, focusing exclusively on the terms of the traditional missing evidence instruction (No. 2.41 in the Redbook). The trial judge denied the request for a curative instruction because “the missing evidence instruction does not apply to the statements of the defendant in the possession of the Government that are exculpatory in nature”; and, even if it did, the instruction was inapplicable because “the evidence with respect to the [defendant’s] statement was [not] peculiarly within the possession of the government.”
As is clear from the explanation of its ruling denying the requested instruction, the trial court misapprehended defense counsel’s request. The two elements that defense counsel requested in an instruction were: (1) that only the government could introduce appellant’s statement to the police, not that only the government possessed the evidence, and (2) that “along the lines of’ a missing evidence instruction, the jury could consider that if the government had decided not to introduce relevant evidence that it solely had the means to introduce (as the defense did not), it may infer that the government thought it would be harmful to its case. Both elements of what defense counsel requested were true in this case. Because the government could present appellant’s out-of-court statement to the police, as an admission, and the government had said it would object, on hearsay grounds, if the defendant tried to introduce the out-of-court statement, only the prosecutor could introduce appellant’s statement to the police. Moreover, by his mid-trial change of course when the trial court determined that the rule of completeness required that the exculpatory portion of appellant’s statement would have to be presented along with the inculpatory part that the prosecutor had hope to present alone, the *21prosecutor demonstrated that the inference the instruction would have permitted (not compelled) the jury to make was eminently reasonable. The trial judge, however, seized upon the “missing evidence” analogy and erroneously ruled that no curative instruction should be given because a missing evidence instruction “did not apply to the defendant’s exculpatory statement” and was not “peculiarly within the possession” of the government. Here, although both parties had the evidence, only the government had the means to introduce it to the jury.9 In a very real sense, therefore, it was peculiarly within the control of the government.
The trial court also should have taken into account that the instruction was not being requested in a vacuum, but in order to mitigate the prejudice to the defense from its inability to fulfill its promise to the jury that had been frustrated by the prosecutor’s change of trial strategy. In discussing the requested instruction, the majority speaks generally about the “costs” and “dangers” of the missing evidence instruction, which permits the jury to “create[] evidence from nonevidence,” Dent v. United States, 404 A.2d 165, 170-71 (D.C.1979), and represents “a radical departure from the principle that the jury should decide the case by evaluating the evidence before it.” Tyer v. United States, 912 A.2d 1150, 1164 (D.C.2006). See ante at 12. None of these dangers was present here, however, where the substance of the evidence was known — there was a video of appellant’s statements at the police station — and was available for the court’s review to determine whether it would be “likely to elucidate the [matter] at issue” and, thus, whether an inference against the government if it withheld the evidence from the jury would be reasonable and fair. Tyer, 912 A.2d at 1164 (quoting Hinnant v. United States, 520 A.2d 292, 294 (D.C.1987)).
Moreover, defense counsel’s request for a curative instruction “along the lines of’ a missing evidence instruction signaled that he was not seeking a traditional missing evidence instruction per se, but one tailored to the “rare” situation that had presented itself in the case. In his motions for mistrial, defense counsel repeatedly made clear to the judge that what concerned him was that the defense had been rendered unable to introduce the statement made by appellant to the police, as counsel had promised at the outset of the trial based on the prosecutor’s prior representation.10 The defense’s inability to fulfill its promise, counsel was arguing, should not be held against the defense, but against the government which had thwarted the defense’s opening promise. Defense counsel’s request described precisely *22what had happened in this trial and the court should have taken steps to present defense counsel’s conundrum to the jury so as to mitigate any negative inference that the jury might unfairly draw against appellant’s claim of self-defense. In this situation, the generic instruction that arguments of counsel are “not evidence” did not begin to address the prejudice that concerned the defense. Cf. Anthony, 935 A.2d at 284 (“We have not regarded the standard judicial caution that the jury’s recollection controls as a cure-all .... ” (quoting Gaither, 134 U.S.App.D.C. at 172, 413 F.2d at 1079)). An instruction tailored to the circumstances was called for, but the trial court’s ruling about the inapplicability of the missing evidence instruction cut off any further discussion to formulate an appropriate instruction.
5. Harmless Error Analysis
Although the trial judge erred in not giving such an instruction, I conclude that the error was harmless. To the extent that the prosecutor’s opening statement about appellant’s initial dissembling when he talked to the police lingered with the jury, so would defense counsel’s opening referring to appellant’s explanation to the police that he stabbed Boyd in self-defense. Appellant argues that a lay jury, not understanding that the defense could not introduce out-of-court statements made by appellant, would have expected appellant to take the stand, and would have held it against him if he did not. Any such expectation should have been mitigated by the court’s instructions that the defense had no responsibility to present evidence, that no negative inference could be drawn from appellant’s decision not to testify, and that it was the government’s burden to present evidence to rebut appellant’s claim of self-defense. Most important, in light of the evidence presented, it is unlikely that the jury was swayed to convict appellant because of defense counsel’s failure to fulfill the promise made in opening statement that appellant told the police that he stabbed Boyd in self-defense when he was questioned at the police station. It must be recognized, that the evidence supporting the government’s case that appellant initiated the fight was fairly sketchy, and that there was evidence supporting appellant’s claim that it was Boyd who confronted him and started the fight. In particular, Boyd, a longtime user of cocaine, was angry at appellant, and Ms. Bowens and Mr. Taylor testified that Boyd was not passive and even “was actually getting the best of [appellant]” until appellant “overpowered him and [Boyd] went to the ground.” If that were the extent of the evidence, appellant would be entitled to a new trial. However, the Medical Examiner’s testimony that Boyd suffered nine deep “penetrating wounds” in the back was compelling evidence that even if appellant began to fight Boyd in self-defense, he used more force — deadly force— than was reasonably necessary to protect himself. Although appellant was acquitted of carrying a dangerous weapon (the knife), he admitted that he stabbed Boyd; no one saw Boyd with a knife. Appellant suffered fairly minor cuts to his hand and knee. Appellant’s claim of self-defense was most likely rejected by the jury, in other words, not because the jury believed that he had lately fabricated the story that Boyd had attacked him and that he had acted in self-defense (defense counsel’s reason for wanting to introduce his early statement to the police claiming that he stabbed Boyd in self-defense), but because the properly instructed jury determined that appellant had forfeited his claim of self-defense by using force in excess of what was reasonable to repel Boyd’s attack. See Edwards v. United States, 721 *23A.2d 938, 941-42 (D.C.1998).11 On this record, I can say “with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error.” Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 756, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). It is on this basis that I concur in the court’s disposition affirming appellant’s convictions.

. It appears that the intersection of Olive and Quarles Streets, where the stabbing took place, is close to Kenilworth Avenue, where appellant said he had been "jumped.”

. The prosecutor stated in opening:
When the detectives asked him what happened to you, he said I was jumped by some guys over on Kenilworth Avenue. Well, you will hear that he was not jumped by some guys over on Kenilworth Avenue. You will hear that he injured himself as he was attacking Steven Boyd.

. Defense counsel’s opening statement responded to the prosecutor's opening:
Ladies and gentlemen, you will see that Mr. Evans cooperated with the police. Yes, he did tell them at first the story about being jumped on Kenilworth Avenue. Folks, he had just stabbed a man. He didn't know the law of self defense. But, you will hear that as soon as the police told him about what had happened with [Boyd], since the police said look, we got this man here stabbed, Mr. Evans told them what happened.
He told them that [Boyd] jumped him. He told them that [Boyd] sliced his hand and he told them that he did stab [Boyd]. He admitted it. He said that I was defending myself.
Ladies and gentlemen, when you hear what Mr. Evans told the police, you will see that unlike what [Boyd] says, what Mr. Evans said is corroborated by the people who were out there. It’s corroborated by the physical and medical evidence. It makes sense.

. I find it disappointing, to say the least, that the prosecutor’s trial strategy was to use as an admission the inculpatory part of appellant’s statement to the police while seeking to object to, and keep from the jury, the exculpatory portion of appellant’s statement. In a criminal trial the government should endeavor to present evidence that will enable the jury to ascertain the truth of the guilt or innocence of the accused.

. The fairness of the judge's ruling is self-evident, and the prosecutor’s assumption that it would be otherwise was legally unfounded. Although the majority calls the evidentiary question "close," it does not take serious issue with the correctness of the trial court's ruling. See ante at 11. Therefore, as counsel should be "charged with knowing the law,” id. at 11, it is not defense counsel, but the prosecutor, who should be taken to task. As the prosecutor candidly said, however, the decision to mention appellant's statement in opening was a "gamble” and not, apparently, a decision based on a firm assessment of the law.

. The majority’s statement that "the reasoning in Wilson [and Smith and Rosser ] has not been applied to opening statements, but instead has thus far been limited to pretrial representations," see ante at 9, overstates the point. In none of these cases has the issue of a representation made during the prosecutor's opening statement been considered by the court. This appeal appears to be the first time the issue of the defense’s reliance on a prosecutor’s opening has been presented to us.

. Defense counsel told the court:
[T]he government opened on the fact that Mr. Evans spoke to the police. In response to that, I opened on what Mr. Evans later told the police in that continuous statement. I can tell the court and I can show the court my draft of my opening, that had the govemment not opened on the statement, I would not have opened on the statement.
(Emphasis added). The trial judge did not take up defense counsel’s offer to review the opening statement he had drafted before the prosecutor’s opening.

. Because I conclude that any error was harmless, I do not think that the trial court abused discretion in denying a mistrial.

. As the trial judge mentioned, the prosecutor had several means to present the evidence "if the government had chosefn]” to do so: the police officer could testify as to what appellant said, the government could have presented "the video of the statement itself,” or "just the audio of the statement.” The trial judge recognized that “there is no requirement on the defendant to present evidence,” but offered that "the capability to talk about what happened during the interview does rest with die defendant if the defendant himself decided to testify.” The defense could not introduce the substance of appellant’s out of court statements, however. Moreover, the defendant cannot be forced to testify, nor can his exercise of the right not to take the stand be impugned before the jury.

. As defense counsel explained to the court, “I want to make sure that my argument is clear. I would have still opened on self-defense. ... But, I would not have opened on what Mr. Evans told the police at the station about what happened.... Now ... we are left in a position that the jury will be expecting to hear [appellant's statement to the police that he stabbed Boyd in self-defense] and expecting some explanation from the defense.”

. In closing argument, the prosecutor emphasized the location and depth of the stab wounds in Boyd’s back to argue that it was unlikely that appellant had been defending himself from Boyd’s attack and, even if he was, that he had unreasonably used deadly force. The defense closing justified the numerous stabbings by focusing on how threatening the attack by the younger and drug-influenced Boyd would have appeared to appellant.