Court Opinion

ID: 9713291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:12:54.809968+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:18.007443
License: Public Domain

Brown, J.
(concurring). If prosecutors do not see the light, they must be made to feel the heat.
It seems, as I said in Commonwealth v. Dowdy, 36 Mass. App. Ct. 495, 501-504 (1994) (Brown, J., dissenting), that the only way to bring about carefully prepared and proper closing arguments and to stop the abuse is to reverse summarily. That appears to be the only effective way to stop the abuse.1 Moreover, in light of the admonition that “care must be taken not to exploit, even inferentially, latent racial paranoia” or bias (Commonwealth v. Washington, 28 Mass. App. Ct. 271, 275-276 [1990] [Brown, J., concurring]), and of the other transgressions by the assistant district attorney, such as the improper questioning, see, e.g., Commonwealth v. Long, 17 Mass. App. Ct. 707, 708 (1984), this case a fortiori requires reversal.

It still is my hope that ultimately a prosecutor whose misconduct is flagrant will “be required personally to reimburse the Commonwealth for the costs of any resultant retrial.” Commonwealth v. Dowdy, 36 Mass. App. Ct. at 503 n.4.