Opinion ID: 2514440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 38

Heading: Quantity and character of errors

Text: As for the second factor, I conclude that the quantity and character of the errors were not great. The district court's failure to provide an explicit written bifurcation instruction did not prejudice Valdez because the court gave a proper oral instruction and a written instruction would not have changed the verdict. The jury's consideration of the penalty during the guilt phase was also harmless because Valdez cannot prove that the jury improperly decided his guilt and he was unaffected by the jury's premature consideration of the sentence. The prosecutorial misconduct also did not prejudice Valdez. Valdez objected to several of the improper comments, and the district court sustained his objections and instructed the jury to disregard the improper comments. Further, several of these errors occurred during jury selection, preceding a multiday trial, and the last error occurred during closing argument, after the jury had already heard overwhelming evidence of Valdez's guilt.