How have the courts dealt with misstatements made by the prosecutor in a criminal case?

The prosecutor stated five times, erroneously, that defendant's clothes bore the particular "chemical signature" of charcoal lighter fluid.² Once, the prosecutor correctly argued that "the signature he detected was consistent with only a few products, lighter fluid being one of them." Defense counsel objected after each of the first three misstatements, but each time, the trial court overruled the objection. After the last occurrence, the prosecutor finished his argument and the proceedings were adjourned for the day. The next day, defense counsel restated his objections and moved for a mistrial. Alternatively, counsel asked for a curative instruction. Lastly, if the court was not going to grant that request, counsel asked that argument be reopened for him to have "two minutes to rebut those improvident comments." The court denied the mistrial motion and declined to give a curative instruction based on People v. Bolton (1979) 23 Cal.3d 208.

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