Launcelot: Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew my master... To be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew my master, who (G-d bless the mark!) is a kind of devil; and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend, who (saving your reverence) is the devil himself.

Certainly the Jew is the very devil incarnation...

-- William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
Act II Scene II

TABLE OF AUTHORITIES.........................iii

INTEREST OF THE AMICI..........................1

STATEMENT OF THE CASE..........................4

THE DECISION BELOW............................10

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT...........................12

ARGUMENT......................................15

I. The Prosecutor's Repeated Allusions
to The Merchant of Venice in a Case
Against an Identifiably Jewish Defendant,
and His Incessant Harping on the
Defendant's Alleged Wealth and Greed,
Violated the Defendant's Constitutional
Rights........................................15

A. Shakespeare's Ignoble Legacy...............17

B. The Presence of Prejudice..................21

II. Granting a Writ of Certiorari Will
Enable This Court to Establish Clear
Guidelines in This Sensitive Area of
Criminal Justice, and to Resolve Several
Critical Questions That Have Divided
the Lower Courts..............................27

A. The Pervasiveness of the Problem...........27

B. Conflicts Among the Courts.................32

(i) Measuring the Likelihood of Prejudice
"Probability" vs. "Potential".................33

(ii) Requiring a New Trial Without a
Specific Finding That the Error Was
Not Harmless..................................34

CONCLUSION....................................38