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DEFENSE COUNSEL WAS INEFFECTIVE FOR FAILING TO OBJECT TO THE PROSECUTOR’S REPEATED CLAIMS, DURING SUMMATION, THAT EVERYTHING THE JURY HEARD FROM DEFENDANT WERE “LIES;” MANSLAUGHTER CONVICTION REVERSED AND NEW TRIAL ORDERED (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, reversing defendant’s manslaughter conviction and ordering a new trial, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Halligan, with two concurrences, determined defense counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the prosecutor’s claims during summation that defendant had repeatedly lied. Defendant had been abused by the victim and had asserted the justification defense. She testified she stabbed the victim once in fear for her life when the victim lunged at her, after he had raped her:

During summation, the prosecutor sought to undermine the defendant’s justification defense by suggesting that the defendant was not credible. In furtherance of that strategy, the prosecutor told the jury, “You never heard testimony that [the defendant] was in fear for her life. You never heard testimony that she was in fear of serious injury. Nothing.” As the People concede, this statement was false. The defendant had, in fact, testified that immediately before the stabbing she was “scared for my life,” and when subsequently asked whether she had testified that she was “afraid for your life,” the defendant responded “Yes, I was.”

Additionally, the prosecutor claimed in summation that the defendant had lied on the stand, using the word “lie” or “lies” fourteen times in total. Among other comments, the prosecutor claimed that “the only thing we can get out of [the defendant] are lies”; that her testimony was “unsubstantiated wild lies”; and that her testimony was “[m]eant to distract you from . . . the endless lies she has told you throughout this entire process.” The prosecutor also posed rhetorical questions along similar lines to the jury: “How could you possibly believe one thing that comes out of her mouth after all the lies she told you?” and “What wouldn’t she lie about?” Following summations, the court excused the jury and expressed concern about “[t]he repeated use of the word lies, which I also was going to limit if not eliminate,” but noted that it did not do so as the word “had been used throughout the trial without objection and I didn’t think it was proper for me to do it at this point.”

Defense counsel did not object either to the prosecutor’s flat misstatement of the defendant’s testimony that she feared for her life or to the repeated use of the word “lies.”  People v T.P., 2025 NY Slip Op 03642, CtApp 6-17-25

Practice Point: Consult this decision for insight into when a prosecutor can go too far in summation.

 

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