00-3130, 00-3149 & 00-3150 U.S. v. Scott, et al.

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“[T]he prosecutor here stopped short of giving the jury the ultimatum presented to the jury in [U.S. v. Vargas, 583 F.2d 380 (7th Cir. 1978)]. In the present case, the Government’s attorney argued that ‘the clear implication from the defense closing was that Inspector Eck and Officer Burke came in here, committed a crime by perjuring themselves,’ and that there were ‘suggestions’ that the officers falsified the report and committed perjury. However, the prosecutor here stopped short of giving the jury the ultimatum presented to the jury in Vargas: The prosecutor did not tell the jury that, if they returned a verdict of not guilty, they had to conclude that the officers lied. This either/or proposition was what we found most troubling in Vargas. … Although the prosecutor here pointed out the ‘unavoidable contradictions,’ he did not state ‘in order to acquit the defendants the jury had to believe that the agents had lied.'”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Scott, J., Ripple, J.