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Defense urges reversal in Ramirez appeal, citing improper elicitation of defendant's silence
Summary
In Commonwealth v. Ramirez, defense counsel Erin Opperman told the three-judge panel the prosecutor elicited testimony that revealed Ramirez's invocation of her right to remain silent and argued the trial error was not harmless given the case's reliance on witness credibility and late disclosure of a recorded call.
Erin Opperman, defense counsel for Miss Ramirez, asked the appeals court to vacate Ramirez's convictions, arguing that a Doyle error occurred when the trial record allowed the jury to learn that Ramirez had invoked her right to remain silent. "I'm here asking the court to, vacate miss Ramirez's convictions, and claim 3 errors, occurring in the trial court," Opperman told the panel.
Opperman said the central legal question is not whether an error occurred — the Commonwealth conceded that point — but whether the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. She argued the totality of the questioning, including two…
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