U.S. Supreme Court QUERCIA v. UNITED STATES, 289 U.S. 466 (1933)

[Page 289 U.S. 466, 472]

that 'wiping' one's hands while testifying was 'almost always an indication of lying.' Why it should be so, he was unable to say, but it was 'the fact.' He did not review the evidence to assist the jury in reaching the truth, but in a sweeping denunciation repudiated as a lie all that the accused had said in his own behalf which conflicted with the statements of the government's witnesses. This was error and we cannot doubt that it was highly prejudicial.

Nor do we think that the error was cured by the statement of the trial judge that his opinion of the evidence was not binding on the jury and that if they did not agree with it they should find the defendant not guilty. His definite and concrete assertion of fact, which he had made with all the persuasiveness of judicial utterance, as to the basis of his opinion, was not withdrawn. His characterization of the manner and testimony of the accused was of a sort most likely to remain firmly lodged in the memory of the jury and to excite a prejudice which would preclude a fair and dispassionate consideration of the evidence. Starr v. United States, supra; Mullen v. United States, supra; Wallace v. United States (C. C.A.) 291 F. 972, 974; Parker v. United States, supra; O'Shaughnessy v. United States, supra; Leslie v. United States (C.C.A.) 43 F.(2d) 288, 289.

The judgment must be reversed.

It is so ordered.