Opinion

Eric Weir v. Lloyd Fletcher, Superintendent, Bell County Forestry Camp

  • 658 F.2d 1126
  • 1981 U.S. App. LEXIS 17904
Court
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Filed
Sep 9, 1981
Status
Published
Author
Lambros
On the bench
Engel, Keith, Lambros
Cited by
23 cases
Authority
More cited than 25.3%

Reversed by Fletcher v. Weir, 455 U.S. 603 (1982)

The opinion

LAMBROS, District Judge,

concurring.

While I concur completely in the opinion filed by Judge Keith, I wish to emphasize that we do not hold that post-arrest silence is never a proper subject of prosecutorial comment, but only that the propriety of such comment does not depend on whether or not the defendant has been read his Miranda warnings. Thus, for example, if a defendant testifies that he told the police an exculpatory version of the facts upon arrest, then the fact of silence may of course be used to challenge the defendant’s behavior following arrest. Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 619-20, n.11 , 96 S.Ct. 2240, 2245, n.11 , 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976).

I also wish to elaborate on our finding of prejudicial error. Having held that comments of the sort complained of here are constitutionally impermissible, to find that they are nevertheless harmless would in essence encourage similar misconduct in future cases. I do not feel that we can allow prosecutors the discretion to decide that, having presented ample untainted evidence, they may make this type of comment without jeopardizing the outcome of their case.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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