Is it improper for a prosecutor to misstate the law generally to absolve the prosecution from its obligation to overcome reasonable doubt?

Advocates are given significant leeway in discussing the legal and factual merits of a case in argument. As noted above, however, it is improper for the prosecutor to misstate the law generally, and particularly to absolve the prosecution from its obligation to overcome reasonable doubt on all elements of the charged offense. (People v. Centeno, supra, 60 Cal.4th at p. 666.) To establish prosecutorial misconduct, the prosecutor's conduct need not encompass bad faith. The term prosecutorial misconduct has been described as a misnomer to the extent it suggests a prosecutor must act with a culpable state of mind. A more apt description of such transgressions is prosecutorial error. (Id. at pp. 666-667.)

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