Opinion ID: 2508322
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Special instruction C

Text: At the time of trial, Bruce Davis, a prosecution witness and the brother of Olin Davis, was in jail facing six counts of robbery. Robert Williams, another prosecution witness, testified at trial that he had been originally charged with four felony counts stemming from his May 4, 1987, altercation with Olin Davis, but the day after he testified at defendant's preliminary hearing three of these counts were dismissed. Williams pleaded guilty to one count of assault with a deadly weapon and, in 1989, was sentenced to 18 years in state prison. He was serving his sentence at the time of trial. Defendant requested, but the trial court refused, this special instruction (special instruction C): The testimony of a witness who provides evidence against a defendant in the hope or expectation of leniency in his punishment must be examined and weighed by the jury with greater care than would be applied to the testimony of an ordinary witness. [¶] The jury should examine such testimony to determine whether it is colored in such a way as to place guilt on the defendant in order to further the witness' own interest, for such a witness, confronted with the realization that he can secure leniency or freedom by incriminating another has a motive to falsify. In requesting this special instruction, defense counsel explained it focused on the expectation of leniency by Bruce Davis and Robert Williams and the effect of such expectation on their testimony. In refusing the instruction, the court noted that the requested instruction was overspecialized, and that CALJIC No. 2.20 adequately focused the jury's attention on the existence or nonexistence of bias, interest, or other motive of a witness. Defendant contends the court erred in so ruling, and thereby violated his right to a fair trial. We have suggested that `in appropriate circumstances' a trial court may be required to give a requested jury instruction that pinpoints a defense theory of the case.... ( People v. Bolden, supra, 29 Cal.4th at p. 558, 127 Cal.Rptr.2d 802, 58 P.3d 931.) But a court need not give a pinpoint instruction if it merely duplicates other instructions. ( Ibid.; see also, e.g., People v. Garceau (1993) 6 Cal.4th 140, 191, 24 Cal.Rptr.2d 664, 862 P.2d 664 [no error in refusing to give a special instruction that would have cautioned the jury to examine with greater care the testimony of an informer, for the jury received adequate standard instructions on the credibility of witnesses].) Here, the jury received instructions on the credibility of witnesses in general (CALJIC No. 2.20) and on the credibility of a witness who has been convicted of a felony (CALJIC No. 2.23). Together, these instructions adequately informed the jury that the existence or nonexistence of a bias, interest, or other motive and a witness's prior conviction of a felony were factors it could consider in determining the believability of a witness. Defendant cites no authority to support his argument that these instructions were inadequate, and we find none. Accordingly, the court did not err in refusing to give defendant's special instruction C. Thus, defendant's right to a fair trial was not violated.