"There are very few cases in which you're going to get more evidence of guilt ..."

In State v. Trout, 2005 WL 147717 (Jan. 25, 2005), Division 3 analyzed a prosecutor's closing argument against a claim of prosecutorial misconduct. (It also considered sufficiency of the evidence and voluntariness of a confession, but this is a trial ad blog.)

Here are passages from the argument:

"There are very few cases in which you're going to get more evidence of guilt than you're gonna get in this case. If this isn't enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt then I'd submit to you there are gonna be very few cases where anybody could be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt."

"Justice demands guilty verdicts. I trust, I know you'll do the right thing. Any other outcome is unjust. It's unjust by the law, and I know you'll return guilty verdicts on all counts against the defendant."

What do you think? Personalizing? Characterizing the evidence? Prejudicial? Could the remarks be cured by instructions?

Either way you go, you won't be alone: there's a strong dissent.

Filed in: closing-arguments, prosecutorial-misconduct, cases