Opinion ID: 1231990
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Homicide Instructions

Text: (12) Defendant contends the court's instructions on homicide were confusing and contradictory. Since the court and counsel agreed that the case involved only felony murder, the court tailored the instructions to that theory. Defendant contends that the court nevertheless confused matters by mentioning other forms of homicide in the instructions defining homicide and murder. The instruction defining homicide, CALJIC No. 8.00, stated: The word homicide means the killing of one human being by another, either lawfully or unlawfully. As used in these instructions the word homicide includes murder and manslaughter, which are unlawful, and the acts of excusable and justifiable homicide, which are lawful. Defendant also complains about CALJIC No. 8.10 (1983 rev.), on murder, which was modified and given as follows: Defendant is charged in count one of the information with the commission of the crime of murder, a violation of Section 187 of the Penal Code. [¶] The crime of murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought or the unlawful killing of a human being which occurs during the commission or attempt to commit a felony inherently dangerous to human life. [¶] In order to prove the commission of the crime of murder, each of the following elements must be proved: [¶] 1. That a human being was killed. [¶] 2. That the killing was unlawful, and [¶] 3. That the killing occurred during the commission or attempt to commit a felony inherently dangerous to human life. Robbery is a felony inherently dangerous to human life. [¶] Malice aforethought is not required under the law of this case. The court then instructed on first degree felony murder during the commission of robbery (CALJIC No. 8.21, mod.) and that if the jury finds defendant guilty of murder, it is first degree murder as a matter of law (CALJIC No. 8.70, mod.). We believe these instructions, taken as a whole, clearly conveyed to the jury that first degree felony murder was the only type of homicide at issue in the case. We find no reasonable probability that the jury would have been misled by these instructions. ( People v. Watson, supra, 46 Cal.2d at p. 836.)