Tuesday, May 16, 2023

"I also want to underscore my disgust at how outrageous the prosecution’s conduct in closing argument was."

 That was Judge Rosenbaum, concurring with an unpublished 107 page opinion in Pace v. Warden:

The prosecutor’s antics have no place in our system of justice. To recap just a couple of the prosecutor’s egregious remarks, he urged the jurors to im-pose the death penalty rather than send Pace to prison for life be-cause “if anal sodomy is your thing, prison isn’t a bad place to be.” The despicable nature of this comment speaks for itself. Not satis-fied with that, the prosecutor also told the jury to sentence Pace to death because if it did not, it would be “saying that these victims’ lives didn’t matter.” It goes without saying that it is never appro-priate or even permissible to attempt to guilt a jury into a death verdict. These tactics aren’t close to the line or justifiable. They are squarely and obviously improper.

I applaud Judge Rosenbaum for calling out these antics.  But the opinion does not name the prosecutor.  And there are no repercussions for the unethical conduct.  So the conviction is affirmed, and then nothing... what's the message for prosecutors?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What message? You won. Congrats.

Anonymous said...

Compare this to the opinions that name the defense lawyer who files an Anders brief. SMFH.

Anonymous said...

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/florida-teacher-investigation-showing-disney-film-gay-character-rcna84446

your welcome

Anonymous said...

https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/kamala-harris-public-defenders-black-juries/

your welcome

Anonymous said...

Is this the same judge who likes to drop music lyrics and other pop culture comments into opinions? Now I agree that the name of the prosecutor should be in opinion…