Commonwealth v. Habarek

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• concluding that evidence of pre-arrest silence was admissible because defense counsel created confusion by raising the topic at trial
• rhetorical question not proper if jury could have perceived it as having shifted Commonwealth’s burden of proof to defendant
• it was not error to admit evidence so as not to leave the jury wondering why the interview ended so abruptly
• rhetorical questions not proper if they appear to the jury to have shifted the burden of proof to the defendant
• “As a general rule, . . . rhetorical questions should not be used in closing argument where they could be perceived by the jury as shifting the Commonwealth’s burden of proof to the defendant”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).