Washington Supreme Court reverses conviction because of prosecutor's improper use of PowerPoint presentation during closing statement

About a month ago, the Washington Supreme Court issued an interesting opinion holding that a prosecutor engaged in prejudicial misconduct requiring a new trial when he used a PowerPoint slide show during closing argument that featured highly inflammatory photos captioned with his own commentary and opinion, including several slides of the defendant with the word “guilty” superimposed across his face.  The case is called In re Glasmann. Writing for the 5-4 majority, Chief Justice Barbara A. Madsen labeled the prosecutor's misconduct “flagrant and ill intentioned” and concluded that it so permeated the state's closing and tainted the case that the error could not have been cured by an instruction to the jury.