There is a growing, and disturbing, trend taking place in federal criminal practice that has provided federal prosecutors with the ability to deliver multiple—albeit truncated—summations throughout the trial itself through the use of summary witnesses pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 1006. These witnesses often either distort or offer incomplete views of the government’s evidence for the purpose of emphasizing selected favorable facts to the jury prior to the government resting its case. This practice presents serious due process implications for criminal defendants.

In any criminal case, the closing arguments, also referred to as summations, are and should be both the government and defense attorneys’ sole opportunity to explain to the jury how the trial evidence supports their respective factual narratives justifying a particular verdict.

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