Commonwealth v. Mitchell

Three errors, the defendant asserts, attended his convictions of armed robbery in a dwelling house and masked armed robbery: (1) improper closing argument by the prosecutor; (2) an error in the jury instructions; and (3) improper limitation on the defense’s cross-examination of the chief prosecution witness.

1. Improper closing argument. In his closing argument, the prosecutor asked the jury to infer guilt from the defendant’s failure to go to the police to protest his innocence. Defense counsel neither objected to the prosecutor’s argument nor requested the trial judge to give curative…