Can a defendant be prejudiced by counsel's failure to object during a prosecutor's illustration of the burden of proof?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Jones, C073559 (Cal. App. 2014):

Here, defendant has failed to establish he was prejudiced by counsel's failure to object during the prosecutor's illustration of the burden of proof. Whether the prosecutor misstated or diluted the burden of proof in closing argument, the trial court admonished the jury that the arguments of counsel on the burden of proof did not state the law and that the jury was required to follow the instructions given by the court. "When argument runs counter to instructions given a jury, we will ordinarily conclude that the jury followed the latter and disregarded the former, for '[w]e presume that jurors treat the court's instructions as a statement of the law by a judge, and the prosecutor's comments as words spoken by an advocate in an attempt to persuade.' [Citation.]" (People v. Osband (1996) 13 Cal.4th 622, 717.)

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