Burton v. State (2012)

In Burton v. State, No. 02-11-00144-CR, 2012 WL 1034920 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth Mar. 29, 2012, no pet.), during the prosecutor's closing argument in the guilt phase of a trial for DWI, the prosecutor said in part, "What harm are we trying to prevent with DWIs? We're trying to prevent four Brock cheerleaders from getting killed. We're trying to prevent somebody from driving one way on I-35." Id. After discussing several decisions from the court of criminal appeals that approved of similar arguments, the Court held that because the argument "informed the jury that by enforcing the DWI law, the State was seeking to prevent DWI-related deaths," it could have reasonably been construed as a proper plea for law enforcement. Id.