How have courts dealt with evidentiary challenges to the penalty during the penalty phase of the trial?

Defendant raises evidentiary challenges to the penalty phase of the trial and contends the death penalty was disproportionate to her individual culpability. Because we ultimately reverse the penalty verdict due to the trial court's misconduct, we need not address each of these challenges. ( People v. Peterson (2020) 10 Cal.5th 409, 477, 268 Cal.Rptr.3d 56, 472 P.3d 382.) Instead, we discuss here the errors that shed light on the trial court's misconduct improper exclusion of mitigating evidence and erroneous instruction regarding discovery violations and address their prejudicial impact in our analysis of the judicial misconduct claim.