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Professional Responsibility Keyed to Gillers
Zapata v. Vasquez
Citation:
788 F.3d 1106 (2015)Facts
Randall Zapata was charged with murder following a confrontation at a party where he fatally stabbed the victim. During closing arguments, the prosecutor repeatedly emphasized that Zapata, a Hispanic defendant, was motivated by “Mexican pride,” making at least ten references to this theme despite the absence of evidence supporting it. The prosecutor also improperly appealed to the jurors’ emotions by asking them to imagine themselves as the victim. Zapata’s defense counsel failed to object to any of these statements. After being convicted of second-degree murder, Zapata filed a habeas petition arguing that his counsel’s failure to object to the prosecutor’s improper arguments constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
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