Phelps v. State

Gerald Phelps, hereinafter the defendant, was charged with rape and kidnapping. He was convicted in a jury trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals this conviction on various grounds of prosecutorial misconduct.

The prosecutrix was a dancer at a bar in Evansville. Shortly after midnight on March 27, 1974, she left her place of employment on foot. The defendant, who had met her earlier at the bar, drove up alongside her and offered her a ride home. The defendant did not take her to her destination. He forced her to commit fellatio and forcibly raped her in the back seat of his car.…