Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

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. The court found that although the use of the term “pervert” was an inappropriate use of a personal epithet by the prosecutor, it was not so prejudicial to defendant as to harm his case because defense counsel objected immediately and the trial court sustained the objection and made clear that the comment was inappropriate. Also, the defense counsel repeated the term in his closing argument and there was no evidence that the prosecutor acted maliciously.

Misconduct by prosecutors is often unintentional and is done without malice. However, it still may be prejudicial to the defendant’s case and may even warrant a new trial. In this case, much of what the defendant wanted to raise in front of the Court of Criminal Appeals was seemingly beyond the scope of the appeal at least in part because steps were not taken to preserve the issues for the record. The issue of prosecutorial misconduct thus also emphasizes the need for skilled and experienced Knoxville criminal defense counsel who can work to ensure that the defendant receives a fair trial.

Source: (State v. Young, 35 TAM 11-23, 1/15/10, Jackson, McLin, 7 pages.)