California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Lopez, C060565 (Cal. App. 2015):
Bifurcation of a gang enhancement may be warranted where the gang evidence is "so extraordinarily prejudicial, and of so little relevance to guilt, that it threatens to sway the jury to convict regardless of the defendant's actual guilt." (People v. Hernandez (2004) 33 Cal.4th 1040, 1049 (Hernandez).) But, "[t]o the extent the evidence supporting the gang enhancement would be admissible at a trial of guilt, any inference of prejudice would be dispelled, and bifurcation would not be necessary." (Id. at pp. 1049-1050.) "Even if some of the evidence offered to prove the gang enhancement would be inadmissible at a trial of the substantive crime itself . . . a court may still deny bifurcation." (Id. at p. 1050.)
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