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Prosecutorial Misconduct

By Baker Associates

Prosecutors in criminal cases are often placed in difficult positions. On one hand, they have to be diligent in representing the state for which they work while on the other hand, they have to avoid doing or saying anything inappropriate that might be challenged by the defendant on appeal as having been unduly harmful to the defendant?s case. A good example of this principle can be found by looking at State v. Young, a case that recently came before the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. In Young, the defendant alleged that the prosecutor made several inappropriate remarks during closing arguments that unfairly prejudiced the jury against the defendant. However, since the defense counsel only objected to one such remark (the prosecution calling the defendant a ?pervert?) and did not address any other remarks in the defendant?s motion for a new trial, the Court of Criminal Appeals only considered the use of the term ?pervert? in deciding whether or not the defendant should be granted a new trial...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on March 12, 2010 (boomark / email).