People v. Johnson

The defendant claims he was the victim of prosecutorial excess during his murder trial before a jury. He was. He was inaccurately described at trial as a convicted narcotics salesman and a convicted felon. In addition, his failure to testify was argued by inference and his lawyer was referred to as “a professional criminal defense lawyer.”

Because the defendant’s lawyer did not make timely objections, and because the evidence was far from overwhelming, we apply a plain error analysis to events at trial. We conclude that serious trial errors, taken in combination, were not harmless beyond a…