Opinion ID: 874801
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The jury instruction on preparing false evidence was proper.

Text: Shackelford next contends that Instruction 30 is ambiguous because the word produced is never defined, which makes it impossible to know whether the jury agreed that produced meant to actually make the tape or whether it meant to give the tape to someone or bring it to someone's attention. The State contends that the instruction was not ambiguous because produced is a term of common usage that did not need further definition and because Shackelford failed to support the claim with any citation to authority. Instruction 30 reads: In order for the defendant to be guilty of Preparing False Evidence, the State must prove each of the following: 1. During a period of time between August, 1999, and January 24, 2000 2. in the state of Idaho 3. the defendant, Dale Carter Shackelford, willfully prepared false evidence 4. with the intent to produce it, or allow it to be produced, for any fraudulent or deceitful purpose, as genuine or true 5. at a grand jury proceeding in Latah County which was authorized by law. If you find any of the above have not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, you must find the defendant not guilty of Preparing False Evidence. If each of the above has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, you must find the defendant is guilty of Preparing False Evidence. We find that the term produced was not ambiguous in the jury instruction. The jury instruction itself answers the question of what the term produced meant because it provides that the evidence was produced at a grand jury proceeding. Thus, Shackelford's argument that produced may have meant actually making the tape or giving the tape to someone or bringing it to someone's attention is invalid because the evidence had to be produced as genuine or true at the actual grand jury proceeding. There is nothing ambiguous about the jury instruction when read in its entirety. Therefore, we find that the jury was properly and adequately instructed.