STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. PHILLIP JOHNSON A-5686-08T4

The prosecutor committed prejudicial error, contrary to State v. Bankston, 63 N.J. 263 (1973), and State v. Branch, 182 N.J. 338 (2005), when he remarked in summation that the State was precluded by the rules of evidence from explaining why a police detective chose defendant's picture to include in a photo array, and the court compounded the error by instructing the jury to the same effect. Additionally, defendant's right to a fair trial was prejudiced when the detective volunteered on direct examination that he selected the photo from a computer database that he called a "Mug Master." 8-19-11