Opinion ID: 2587254
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Special verdict in lieu of instruction

Text: Defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jurors that in order to find true the special circumstance allegation of murder committed while defendant was engaged in the commission of a robbery, they had to find that defendant possessed the intent to kill. At the guilt phase, the trial court declined defense counsel's request to give an instruction defining express malice, instead requiring the jury to make a special finding whether defendant possessed the intent to kill, at the same time the jury rendered a verdict on the murder itself. In addition, as discussed above, both the prosecution and the defense in closing argument addressed the issue of defendant's intent to kill. [11] In finding defendant guilty of first degree murder committed in the course of a robbery, the jury made the special finding that defendant possessed the intent to kill. As we have seen, this finding is supported by substantial evidence. Under these circumstances it is clear that the erroneous omission of the instruction requested by defendant, or of an instruction informing the jury it had to find defendant intended to kill in order to find the robbery-murder special circumstance true, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. ( Chapman v. California, supra, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705; People v. Flood, supra, 18 Cal.4th 470, 504, 76 Cal.Rptr.2d 180, 957 P.2d 869; cf. People v. Harris (1989) 47 Cal.3d 1047, 1099-1100, 255 Cal. Rptr. 352, 767 P.2d 619.)