Opinion ID: 2545831
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comment by defense expert witness

Text: We reject defendant's contention that the penalty phase judgment must be reversed for prosecutorial misconduct in eliciting on cross-examination a comment from a defense expert witness, Dr. Donald Lunde, that defendant's siblings did not visit him in jail because they believed he had killed their mother. Defendant also asserts that defense counsel was ineffective in failing to object, particularly because the topic had been earlier ruled inadmissible when raised in connection with evidence that defendant's brother Mike thought defendant was their mother's killer. Both claims fail for want of prejudice. It is neither reasonably possible ( People v. Jackson (1996) 13 Cal.4th 1164, 1232, 56 Cal.Rptr.2d 49, 920 P.2d 1254) nor reasonably probable ( Strickland v. Washington, supra, 466 U.S. at p. 669, 104 S.Ct. 2052) that the jury would have reached a different verdict at the penalty phase had it not heard Dr. Lunde's brief comment.