Opinion ID: 1447881
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Refusal to Give Instruction Defining Aggravating and Mitigating Factors

Text: Defendant submitted this jury instruction at the penalty phase: Aggravating factors are facts attending the commission of a crime which increase its guilt or enormity or add to its injurious consequences, but which are above and beyond the essential constituents of the crime itself. [ถ] Mitigating factors are circumstances which do not constitute a justification or excuse of the offense in question, but which, in fairness and mercy, may be considered as extenuating or reducing the degree of moral culpability. (29) The trial court refused to give the requested instruction. Defendant contends this was error. Such an instruction may well have assisted the jury in evaluating the statutory circumstances in aggravation and mitigation. ( People v. Malone, supra, 47 Cal.3d 1, 54-55.) Nevertheless, the trial court did not err in refusing to give this instruction. The instruction defined the terms aggravating and mitigating. As we explained in Malone : `Aggravation' and `mitigation' are commonly understood terms. A trial court is not required to instruct on the meaning of terms that are commonly understood. [Citation.] ( Id. at p. 55.)