Opinion ID: 1372628
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Instructions' Restrictive Effect on Considering Mitigating Evidence.

Text: Defendant contends that certain instructions unconstitutionally restricted the jury's ability to consider mitigating evidence.
(24) As described above, the jury was told it could consider any other circumstance that might extenuate the crimes' gravity, even though the circumstance would not provide a legal excuse for the crimes. Defendant contends the instruction unconstitutionally restricted the jury's consideration of sympathetic aspects of defendant's background and character. The United States Supreme Court has held otherwise, concluding that reasonable jurors would not understand the instruction to restrict consideration of sympathetic background evidence. ( Boyde v. California (1990) 494 U.S. 370, 381-382 [108 L.Ed.2d 316, 329-330, 110 S.Ct. 1190].) Defendant argues that Boyde is distinguishable on its facts because, among other things, the prosecutor in that case acknowledged that the jury could consider defendant's character ( id. at pp. 385-386 [108 L.Ed.2d at pp. 332-333]), whereas in this case the prosecutor told the jury to disregard sympathy. We have already explained that the prosecutor's comment was insignificant in the context of the other instructions and the penalty trial as a whole. (See pt. III.A.1., ante. ) Hence we are unpersuaded that the distinction is material: even in light of the prosecution's comment there is no reasonable likelihood ( People v. Clair, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 663) that the jury misconstrued the instruction to preclude any consideration of sympathy for defendant.
(25) Defendant contends that by giving an instruction that the jury could consider in mitigation any extreme mental or emotional disturbance the court misled the jury that it could not consider such disturbances if of lesser degree. Defendant also notes that the court, after the trial had concluded, referred to the absence of any extreme disturbance in denying his motion to modify the verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)). We disagree that the jury was misled by the instruction's wording. For reasons we gave in People v. Benson (1990) 52 Cal.3d 754, 803-804 [276 Cal. Rptr. 827, 802 P.2d 330], the instruction that the jury could consider any circumstance in addition to those specified that might extenuate the crimes' gravity leads us to conclude there is no reasonable likelihood ( People v. Clair, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 663) that the jury misunderstood the degree of disturbance, if any, it could consider. (See also People v. Clark (1992) 3 Cal.4th 41, 163 [10 Cal. Rptr.2d 554, 833 P.2d 561].) With regard to defendant's contention that the court's posttrial comment showed an undue focus on extreme disturbances, we note that the court also found no circumstances whatever that might have extenuated the crimes' gravity. We believe the court's comment shows that it saw no disturbance of a lesser degree that might have amounted to such an extenuation.
(26) Finally, defendant contends the jury should have been instructed that age could be considered only in mitigation, and that equivocal prosecution comments on the topic buttressed the instructional error, thereby making his penalty trial unconstitutionally unreliable. We have repeatedly rejected similar claims (e.g., People v. DeSantis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 1198, 1253 [9 Cal. Rptr.2d 628, 831 P.2d 1210]) and decline to alter our views. Moreover, the prosecutor conceded that age was a factor that could be considered in mitigation. (See pt. III.A.1., ante. )