State v. Sousa
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The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of robbery and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, holding that the trial court did not err by overruling Defendant's objection to an aspect of the State’s closing argument, and Defendant was not denied a fair trial because the court failed to address sua sponte the State’s alleged misstatement of evidence in its rebuttal argument.
Specifically, the Supreme Judicial Court held (1) the State did not commit prosecutorial misconduct during its closing argument by overruling Defendant's objection to an argument that Defendant argued improperly suggested that Defendant had the burden of proof; and (2) any mischaracterization of the evidence by the State was not of such magnitude to have required the court to intervene sua sponte.
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