Does a defendant have a right to complain on appeal of comments made by a prosecutor at trial?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Stewart, 15 Cal.Rptr.3d 656, 33 Cal.4th 425, 93 P.3d 271 (Cal. 2004):
Although defendant now asserts that these statements constituted comment
[15 Cal.Rptr.3d 722]
upon his failure to testify, in violation of Griffin, supra, 380 U.S. 609, 615, 85 S.Ct. 1229, he failed to object at trial to any of them. Defendant claims that the trial court "took virtually no action to reign [in the prosecutor]" and hence any objection would have been futile. The record discloses, however, that the trial court in fact did take numerous steps to control the frequent bickering between counsel and that defense counsel continued to make objections during the course of the trial, through the closing arguments and hence dispels the notion that defense counsel considered objections to be futile. We conclude that because defendant failed to make a timely objection in this instance, he has no right to complain on appeal of the challenged statements. (People v. Mitcham (1992) 1 Cal.4th 1027, 1050-1051, 5 Cal.Rptr.2d 230, 824 P.2d 1277.)[15 Cal.Rptr.3d 722]
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