Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Residual Doubt

Text: (128) Defendant contends the trial court erred in not instructing sua sponte that jurors could consider residual doubt about defendant's guilt in determining penalty. The trial court instructed the jurors that in fixing penalty they could consider any circumstance that extenuates the gravity of the crime even though it is not a legal excuse for the crime and any sympathetic or other aspects of a defendant's character or record that the defendant offers as a basis for a sentence less than death, whether or not related to the offense for which he is on trial. The jurors were instructed to disregard any jury instruction given to you in the guilt or innocence phase of this trial which conflicts with this principle. These instructions on the scope of mitigating circumstances were sufficient to encompass the concept of residual doubt about defendant's guilt. ( People v. Sully, supra, 53 Cal.3d 1195, 1245; People v. Murtishaw (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1001, 1018 [258 Cal. Rptr. 821, 773 P.2d 172].) The trial court was under no obligation to give a more specific instruction on residual doubt as a mitigating circumstance. ( People v. Cox, supra, 53 Cal.3d 618, 676-678.) After the jury returned its guilt verdicts, one of the jurors was replaced by an alternate. Defendant contends that this development required the court to instruct the jury sua sponte that in making the penalty determination the substituted juror could consider doubts about defendant's guilt, that the substituted juror could explain the basis for those doubts to the other jurors, and that the other jurors could consider residual doubts raised after discussing the guilt evidence with the substituted juror. The trial court was not required to so instruct. The trial court instructed the jurors that they were entitled to review all the evidence admitted during the guilt phase and that they might discuss that evidence and questions [the substituted juror] may have to it during your deliberations on penalty. Moreover, as we have already concluded, the instructions given adequately conveyed the message that the jury could consider lingering doubts about guilt. Nothing more was required. (See People v. Kaurish, supra, 52 Cal.3d 648, 708; People v. Gonzalez (1990) 51 Cal.3d 1179, 1234-1236 [275 Cal. Rptr. 729, 800 P.2d 1159].)