Is a prosecutor prohibited from misstating the law to reduce the burden to prove each element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Martinez, B284282 (Cal. App. 2019):

A prosecutor is prohibited from misstating the law to reduce its burden to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. (People v. Centeno (2014) 60 Cal.4th 659, 666.) However, "[a]dvocates are given significant leeway in discussing the legal and factual merits of a case during argument." (Ibid.) "Counsel trying to clarify the jury's task by relating it to a more common experience must not imply that the task is less rigorous than the law requires." (Id. at p. 671.) Reasonable doubt analogies in argument have not been categorically disapproved and each claim of error must be evaluated on a case-by-case

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