Opinion
No. 303 2013.
2013-12-26
Derrick J. SUDLER, Defendant Below–Appellant, v. STATE of Delaware., Plaintiff Below–Appellee.
The State argues that the prosecutor did not directly appeal to the sentiments of the jury. Rather, the State contends that the word “you” was an indefinite and informal pronoun, easily substituted with the words “one” or “a person” in place of “you .” But no amount of grammatical artifice can alter the fact that the prosecutor's use of the word “you” was consistent with the statements we found objectionable in Swan. The purpose of the Golden Rule is to prohibit a lawyer from improperly playing on the sentiments of the jury by asking them to envision themselves as the victims of the crime. In this case, the prosecutor's statements plainly violated the Golden Rule. Thus, the trial court's allowance of the prosecutor's closing statement was erroneous.