Christopher Pullen v. Virginia
Whether the Virginia Court of Appeals erred in holding that a prosecutor's closing argument- asserting as a "reasonable inference" that the complaining witness had described a specific and rare weapon to her family, despite the absence of any testimony or evidence in the record supporting that claim- did not violate the defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, when the argument relied solely on Duncan v. Commonwealth, 2 Va. App. 717(1986), and permitted the jury to consider as evidence a factual assertion never introduced or supported at trial.
Whether a prosecutor's closing argument asserting as a reasonable inference facts not supported by testimony or evidence violates a defendant's constitutional right to a fair trial under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment