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Defense says prosecutor's closing urged jurors to 'disregard' defense expert; court hears competing views
Summary
Defense argued prosecutors repeatedly described the defense expert as an 'advocate, not a witness' and told jurors 'there's nothing here,' which the defense says stripped the only defense theory of weight; the Commonwealth contends the critique was grounded in testimony and trial evidence.
Defense counsel William Smith told the court that a repeated prosecutorial theme during closing — that the defense expert was "an advocate, not a witness" — and statements such as "there's nothing here" asked jurors to disregard the expert's testimony. "If you tell the jury that there's nothing here, then what you're really saying ... is, you can disregard what doctor Sherry testified to," Smith said, arguing this systematic attack posed a substantial risk to the defendant's only defense.
Smith said that calling the expert an "advocate" was more than a…
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