Court Reverses Murder Conviction Over Prosecutor’s ‘Devil’ Remark

From The Associated Press via Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat:

The Missouri Supreme Court tossed out a man’s murder conviction Tuesday, finding the prosecutor was wrong in calling the man “the devil” during closing arguments at the trial.

Jeremy Banks was found guilty of first-degree murder in a 2003 shooting in Kansas City and sentenced to life in prison without parole. In his defense, Banks argued that the prosecution’s witnesses were unreliable because they were drug users.

The prosecutor responded that at a reputed drug house, witnesses are going to be involved in drugs.

When “we have to go and catch the devil, there are no angels as witnesses. This is hell. He is the devil,” assistant prosecutor Dawn Parsons said, according to the Supreme Court ruling.

Banks’ attorney objected and sought a mistrial, but the judge overruled him. The prosecutor said she was merely making an analogy to stress her point.

The Supreme Court said in an unsigned, unanimous opinion that she went too far.

“The state points to no evidence that Banks was in fact the devil and the crime scene was hell,” the Supreme Court said.

The state’s highest court said both the prosecutor and lower court acted improperly, and ordered a new trial for Banks.