Samosky v. State

The defendant William Samosky appeals his convictions for manslaughter, armed robbery and kidnapping and contends that the trial court committed reversible error in denying his timely motion for mistrial based on an impermissible comment by the prosecuting attorney during closing argument to the jury. It is urged that the prosecuting attorney indirectly commented on the defendant’s failure to testify in the ease as follows:

“So normally at this point, I’d say, ‘Well, what about the defense in this case?’ I don’t know what the defense is_” (R. 234-35)

We entirely agree that the above comment was…