California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Watson, D058047 (Cal. App. 2012):
A prosecutor in a criminal case can commit misconduct under either federal or state law. "A prosecutor's conduct violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution when it infects the trial with such unfairness as to make the conviction a denial of due process. Conduct by a prosecutor that does not render a criminal trial fundamentally unfair is prosecutorial misconduct under state law only if it involves the use of deceptive or reprehensible methods to attempt to persuade either the trial court or the jury." (People v. Morales (2001) 25 Cal.4th 34, 44.)
Absent a fundamentally unfair trial under the federal Constitution, prosecutorial misconduct does not require reversal of the judgment unless it was prejudicial under state law, i.e. it is reasonably probable the defendant would have obtained a more favorable verdict absent the misconduct. (People v. Castillo (2008) 168 Cal.App.4th 364, 386; People v. Crew (2003) 31 Cal.4th 822, 839.) If the prosecutorial misconduct renders the defendant's trial fundamentally unfair under the federal Constitution, reversal of the
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