What is the test for counsel for the defense to make a closing argument in a criminal trial?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Perez, B267648 (Cal. App. 2017):

"The very premise of our adversary system of criminal justice is that partisan advocacy on both sides of a case will best promote the ultimate objective that the guilty be convicted and the innocent go free. In a criminal trial, which is in the end basically a factfinding process, no aspect of such advocacy could be more important than the opportunity finally to marshal the evidence for each side before submission of the case to judgment." (Herring v. N.Y. (1975) 422 U.S. 853, 862.) "There can be no doubt that closing argument for the defense is a basic element of the adversary factfinding process in a criminal trial. Accordingly, it has universally been held that counsel for the defense has a right to make a closing summation to the jury, no matter how

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