People v. Marshall
Court of Appeals of Illinois
995 N.E.2d 1045 (2013)
Relevant factsFree
Two witnesses who initially implicated Marshall in a murder later retracted their statements before agreeing to testify against him at trial, and the prosecutor repeatedly attributed their initial retraction to a supposed fear of law enforcement said to be inherent in the local Black community's culture, statements unsupported by any evidence and irrelevant to the witnesses' actual credibility.
IssueFree
Whether a prosecutor's exploitation of racial prejudice to influence a jury constitutes plain error that warrants a new trial.