State of Iowa v. Mark Gabriel Martin

HECHT, Justice.

A prosecutor conducting voir- dire posed hypothetical questions closely approximating the facts of the case, intimated the State possessed additional evidence supporting guilt but could only present some of it, and delivered a lecture that implied the State only prosecutes guilty people. The record does not establish whether the prosecutor’s questions were calculated or simply unartful, but the district court concluded they ventured into a gray area. Likewise, the court of appeals concluded the prosecutor’s questions teetered on the line between proper and improper. Despite…