Commonwealth v. Donovan

The defendant, Michael S. Donovan, was convicted of multiple counts of aggravated rape, indecent assault and battery, kidnapping, and threatening to commit a crime. He contends that aspects of the prosecutor’s closing, which focused on the significant variance between his post-Miranda statements to the police and the defense theory at trial, constitute reversible error. The defendant, who did not testify at trial, particularly objects to the prosecutor’s comments on (1) the defendant’s statements, made to police officers, that “[i]t was not me,” and that the defendant did not know anything…