People v. Biondo, Docket Nos. 28206
Decision Date | 07 June 1977 |
Docket Number | Docket Nos. 28206,29131 |
Citation | 256 N.W.2d 60,76 Mich.App. 155 |
Parties | PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Salvatore BIONDO, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Thomas J. McCallum, John L. Ross, Fraser, for defendant-appellant.
Frank J. Kelley, Atty. Gen., Robert A. Derengoski, Sol. Gen., William L. Cahalan, Pros. Atty., Edward R. Wilson, Appellate Chief, Andrea L. Solak, Asst. Pros. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.
Before BASHARA, P. J., and QUINN and BEASLEY, JJ.
Defendant Salvatore Biondo was convicted by a jury of breaking and entering of a business establishment with intent to commit a larceny. M.C.L.A. § 750.110; M.S.A. § 28.305. This conviction resulted in a probation violation sentence from an earlier conviction. Defendant appeals from both the breaking and entering and the probation violation convictions.
Defendant's most substantial issue concerns the arguments of the prosecutor at trial. This Court has been increasingly faced with meritorious claims of prosecutorial misconduct contrary to clearly expressed precedent. See People v. LaForte, 75 Mich.App. ---, 256 N.W.2d 44 (1977); People v. Osborne, 75 Mich.App. ---, 256 N.W.2d 45 (1977). We fail to understand why some prosecutors insist upon employing prejudicial lines of argument as a form of rhetorical overkill. We must therefore continue to condemn apparent reckless disregard for the established scope of proper jury argument.
The prosecutor in the present case utilized a line of argument generally termed as "civic duty". He began his closing argument in the following manner:
Apparently unconvinced that he had sufficiently impressed upon the jury the seriousness of the city's crime problems, the prosecutor returned to this area during his rebuttal:
Defendant's counsel then objected to this line of argument. The trial court allowed the prosecutor to continue:
Defendant made a motion for mistrial based upon the prosecution argument, which was denied.
The "civic duty" tactic of jury argument has been repeatedly condemned by this Court as prejudicial since it injects into a trial issues unrelated to the particular defendant's case. In People v. Farrar, 36 Mich.App. 294, 298-299, 193 N.W.2d 363 (1971), the Court adopted the language of the ABA Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, The Prosecution Function, Std. 5.8(d), as applicable to this issue:
In People v. Williams, 65 Mich.App. 753, 238 N.W.2d 186 (1975), this Court reversed the conviction after the prosecutor had argued to the jury that they could affect the drug traffic in the city of Detroit by finding the defendant guilty. The Court stated:
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