Court Opinion

ID: 9745044
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:30:08.496211+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:55.100476
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion
Lybrook, J.
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion but for the sole reason that defendant failed to object at trial to the prosecutorial comment concerning his failure to testify.
The majority opinion contains dictum which seems to dismiss the impropriety of the prosecutor’s comments on the basis that they are taken out of context and that the central theme of the argument was simply that the evidence was not conflicting. We are of the opinion that regardless of the propriety of the central theme, that remarks suggesting the defendant’s failure to testify will not be tolerated providing timely objection thereto is made and the court fails to properly admonish the jury.
The majority opinion seems to suggest that in some way Hadley v. State (1975), 165 Ind. App. 416, 332 N.E.2d 269, contravenes Bradburn v. State (1971), 256 Ind. 453, 269 N.E.2d 539. The writer fails to discern any conflict between these cases. Hadley was grounded in another Supreme Court decision, Rowley v. State (1972), 259 Ind. 209, 285 N.E.2d 646. In Rowley the prosecutorial comment was to the effect that . . there had not been one bit of evidence from the witness stand that indicated the defendant was not guilty.”
The Rowley court held that the above remarks violated defendant’s right to a fair trial and reversed his conviction.
The remarks in the case at bar are similar to those made in Rowley and are no less offensive. We feel no conflict exists *284between any of the cases heretofore cited and that the remarks in the case at bar would be reversible under any of them had the proper objection been made and followed through. Lending further support to our statement that these cases do not conflict is the fact that transfer was denied, without opinion, in Hadley.
The defendant’s failure to object permits me to concur in the result, but only for that reason.
Note. — Reported at 356 N.E.2d 686.