The following excerpt is from Saddler v. Evans, CASE NO: 09-CV-2067 W (JMA) (S.D. Cal. 2012):
For a federal court to grant habeas relief on the basis of instructional error, a petitioner must show that the "ailing instruction by itself so infected the entire trial that the resulting conviction violates due process." Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 147 (1973). It is not enough for the instruction to be "undesirable, erroneous or even
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'universally condemned.'" Id. at 146. The error must have had a substantial and injurious effect on the jury's determination. Hedgpeth v. Pulido, 555 U.S. 57, 61-62 (2008).
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