Court Opinion

ID: 9760175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:42:11.58413+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:08.828541
License: Public Domain

LAVINE, J.,
concurring. I agree that the trial court’s judgment should be affirmed. I write separately because I do not agree that any prosecutorial improprieties occurred in closing argument.1
The majority concludes that the prosecutor improperly referred to facts that were not in evidence when he argued to the jury that it could infer intent to kill because it takes more effort to fire a revolver as opposed to a semiautomatic weapon. In light of the expert testimony concerning the differences between a revolver and a semiautomatic weapon, referenced in the majority’s opinion, I see nothing at all wrong with this argument. The prosecutor simply was asking the jury to draw a reasonable, common sense inference from the evidence. The jury was free to draw the requested inference, or not, as it saw fit. See State v. Palangio, 115 Conn. App. 355, 366, 973 A.2d 110 (2009) *173(“[t]he jury members may draw from the evidence only such inferences as are reasonable, but they are not required to put aside their common sense”).
I also disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the state’s repetitive use of the phrase, “doesn’t it offend your common sense,” was improper. This garden variety argument employs a common rhetorical device. It is the repeated use of the phrase that leads the majority to conclude that the prosecutor improperly expressed a personal opinion. If, however, using the phrase once is not improper—and the majority cites no case standing for that proposition—how can the repeated use of the phrase be considered improper? To reach the conclusion it reaches, the majority must condemn even the single use of the phrase, “doesn’t it offend your common sense.” This the majority opinion does not do.
Because I conclude that the prosecutor’s closing argument was not improper, I respectfully concur.

 I agree with the facts as stated by the majority.