State v. Pinson

¶1 Jared Allan Pinson appeals his second degree assault conviction (domestic violence), claiming that prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of a fair trial. We hold that (1) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct by arguing in closing that Pinson’s failure to respond to police questioning was evidence of his guilt, in violation of the constitutional right against self-incrimination; (2) although Pinson did not object to the prosecutor’s argument, he did not waive his prosecutorial misconduct claim because an instruction would not have cured the prejudice; and (3) the misconduct resulted in…