Supreme Court of California

Defendant’s conviction and sentence for two counts of committed lewd acts on a child under the age of 14, and one misdemeanor count of annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18, is reversed, where: 1) courts have repeatedly cautioned prosecutors against using diagrams or visual aids to elucidate the concept of proof beyond a reasonable doubt; 2) the prosecutor here used a diagram showing the boundaries of California and urged the jury to convict based on a “reasonable” view of the evidence; and 3) there is a reasonable probability that the prosecutor’s argument caused one or more jurors to convict defendant based on a lesser stand than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, due to the potentially misleading affect of the diagram and related statements.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/04/2014
• Published 12/04/2014

Judges

• Corrigan

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel