United States v. John Flannery

ALDRICH, Chief Judge.

In 1965 we held that for the government to say, in summation to the jury, that certain of its evidence was “uneontradieted,” when contradiction would have required the defendant to take the stand, drew attention to his failure to do so, and hence was unconstitutional comment. Desmond v. United States, 1 Cir., 1965, 345 F.2d 225. 1 We do not adopt the reasoning of those courts which state, it seems to us, ingenuously, that to say that the government witnesses’ testimony was uneontradieted is simply a statement of historical fact. There are many ‘facts’ which are benign in…