Court throws out rape conviction because prosecutor was too good in closing arguments

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today threw out a rape conviction because the assistant district attorney in the case went too far in playing on the emotions of jurors.

In a case out of Berkshire County, the court ruled that demanding vindication for the victim and telling the jury that she had been victimized a second time by being forced to retell the events of the night her boyfriend allegedly raped her "were beyond the pale of any acceptable closing advocacy. ... In this case, the aforedescribed vindication-based errors in the closing had the ineluctable effect of 'sweep[ing] the jurors beyond a fair and calm consideration of the evidence.'"

The boyfriend argued the sex was consensual.

Complete ruling.