Tyler

Defendant was convicted in a jury trial of second degree robbery after he snatched a purse from a woman pedestrian on an Oakland street. In a trial by the court he was found to have two prior convictions. He was sentenced to prison for 13 years. On appeal, he makes two claims of error: (1) the trial court made improper comments to the jury and (2) the trial court improperly excluded an item of evidence.

*886 Facts *

Discussion

I. Trial Court’s Comments

At closing argument, the trial court twice interrupted defense counsel and remarked that defense counsel was not allowed to express his belief in his client’s innocence. At the outset, the court interjected as follows:

Later, after defense counsel had discussed the presumption of innocence, defense counsel stated: “Now in this case, Mr. Tyler has the jury defense. That is, he turns to the jury system. He turns to the jury and asks the jury to perform its role in the system. Because of the presumption of innocence and because Mr. Tyler, the accused, has no burden of proof, as you sit there right now, as you sit there and think about my comments and the comments of the district attorney, you are under an obligation to…