Criminal Procedure — prosecutorial misconduct — harmless error

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — prosecutorial misconduct — harmless error

Even if the prosecutor made improper statements during closing argument, the error is harmless where the evidence was overwhelming.

“Even accepting that the Government improperly insinuated that the co-conspirators gave prior consistent statements, and also implied that the district court played some role in vouching for the plea agreements of the co-conspirators, we are not convinced that but for these missteps the outcome of Tucker’s trial would have been different. Rather, the evidence against Tucker was overwhelming. Nine co-conspirators testified consistently and corroborated that they either: (1) saw Tucker purchase heroin; (2) purchased heroin from Tucker; (3) sold heroin for Tucker; or (4) packaged and distributed heroin for Tucker. The record here fairly demonstrates Tucker’s guilt, ‘such that none of the asserted errors, either individually or cumulatively’ could have affected the jury’s result. United States v. Adams, 628 F.3d 407, 420 (7th Cir. 2010) (quoting Anderson v. Sternes, 243 F.3d 1049, 1055 (7th Cir. 2001)). We therefore do not accept Tucker’s contention that he was deprived of a fair trial.

Affirmed.

12-1281 U.S. v. Tucker

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Randa, J., Bauer, J.