Does a prosecutor have any personal beliefs in their summation of evidence in a criminal case?
The following excerpt is from United States v. Williams, No. 13-2576(L), No. 14-2371(Con) (2nd Cir. 2016):
We disagree. In the context of the entire summation, it was clear that these statements were the prosecutor's submissions based on the evidence, not the prosecutor's personal beliefs. If that was ever in doubt, such doubt was resolved by the court's curative measures. With respect to the first two challenged statements, the court asked the prosecutor, "Well, that's your submission, correct?" and the prosecutor responded, "That's correct." Tr. 668. A prosecutor does not engage in impermissible vouching by offering reasons to credit a witness's testimony or posing rhetorical questions about the witness's motive to lie. See United States v. Perez, 144
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