Court Opinion

ID: 9852357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:29:07.413695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:26.261402
License: Public Domain

*75Rogosheske, Justice
(dissenting).
I would grant defendant a new trial. A busy trial judge’s oversight in failing to afford final argument by counsel in a criminal case should, I believe, have prompted the judge to announce his intention to order a mistrial, unless the parties refused, rather than offering defense counsel the unrealistic opportunity of criticizing after the decision had not only been announced but the basis therefor explained. Try as I might, and however compelling the evidence of defendant’s guilt appears, I cannot view the procedure followed as consistent with the requirements of the appearance, as well as the reality, of fairness or with the proper role and function of counsel in our adversary system of criminal justice, or indeed as harmless judicial error beyond a reasonable doubt. A mere recognition of its impropriety is not, I believe, sufficient to deter its future repetition.