State of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent v. T.j.m.

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed T.J.M.'s convictions for second-degree sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, rejecting four issues raised by an Appellate Division dissent. The Court held that the victim's entrance into the courtroom during defense summation was not orchestrated prosecutorial misconduct, that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting defendant's six-year-old resisting-arrest conviction for impeachment, and that the prosecutor's two summation remarks were either fair response to the evidence or cured by the jury instruction. The Court also declined the ACLU's invitation to create a registry of prosecutorial misconduct.