How has the jury been instructed on reasonable doubt in a sexual assault trial?

instructed the jury regarding the definition of reasonable doubt, and the jury received written instructions to take to the jury room. The prosecutor also told the jurors, "You have been given an instruction on reasonable doubt" and confirmed that "[r]easonable doubt is an abiding conviction [in] the truth of the fact." The jurors were also advised that if anything said by counsel in their closing arguments conflicted with the trial court's instructions regarding the law, they were required to follow the instructions. A jury is presumed to follow its instructions. Moreover, "arguments of counsel generally carry less weight with a jury than do instructions from the court." (Boyde v. California (1990) 494 U.S. 370, 384.) Accordingly, defendant was not prejudiced by counsel's failure to object to the prosecutor's analogy.

C. The prosecutor's argument did not lessen the burden of proof.