California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Lopez, F064487 (Cal. App. 2014):
"'[A]rguments of counsel "generally carry less weight with a jury than do instructions from the court. The former are usually billed in advance to the jury as matters of argument, not evidence [citation], and are likely viewed as the statements of advocates; the latter, we have often recognized, are viewed as definitive and binding statements of the law." [Citation.]' [Citation.] '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.]' [Citation.]" (People v. Katzenberger (2009) 178 Cal.App.4th 1260, 1268.)
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