Opinion ID: 1225502
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Dewberry Error: Attempted Murder and the Benefit of Reasonable Doubt

Text: (17) Defendant contends the trial court prejudicially erred when it failed to instruct the jury, sua sponte, that if it had a reasonable doubt whether defendant attempted to murder Shawn May, but believed he assaulted her with a deadly weapon, they should give defendant the benefit of the doubt and find him guilty of the lesser offense of assault with a deadly weapon. That instructional omission was especially prejudicial, defendant argues, because the trial court did give the jury two similar benefit of the doubt instructions  with respect to first and second degree murder and with respect to murder and manslaughter (both as to the Painter homicide). Because the jury was told to give defendant the benefit of any reasonable doubt it might have with respect to these offenses but not with respect to the attempted murder of Shawn May and the lesser included offense of assault with a deadly weapon, defendant argues the jurors were left with the erroneous implication that as to that latter count, the benefit of the doubt rule did not apply. Defendant relies on our opinion in People v. Dewberry (1951) 51 Cal.2d 548 [334 P.2d 852], in support of his argument. That was a murder case in which the trial court instructed the jury on the elements of murder and manslaughter, explained that there were two degrees of murder and that, if the jury decided defendant had committed murder but had a reasonable doubt as to the degree, they should give defendant the benefit of the doubt and find him guilty of second degree murder. ( Id. at p. 554.) Although the Dewberry jury also was instructed that if it had a reasonable doubt whether the killing was manslaughter or justifiable homicide, it was to acquit, the trial court refused a general defense instruction that would have told the jury that if it found the defendant `was guilty of an offense included within the charge ..., but entertain a reasonable doubt as to the degree of the crime of which he is guilty, it is your duty to convict him only of the lesser offense.' ( Ibid. ) We reversed the jury's ensuing conviction of Dewberry of second degree murder on the ground that a criminal defendant is entitled to the benefit of a jury's reasonable doubt with respect to all crimes with lesser degrees or related or included offenses. ( People v. Dewberry, supra, 51 Cal.2d at p. 556.) The failure of the trial court to instruct on the effect of a reasonable doubt as between any of the included offenses, when it had instructed as to the effect of such doubt as between the two highest offenses, and as between the lowest offense and justifiable homicide, left the instructions with the clearly erroneous implication that the rule requiring a finding of guilt of the lesser offense applied only as between first and second degree murder. ( Id. at p. 557.) Defendant's case is different. Here, the trial court did give the jury several generally applicable instructions governing its use of the reasonable doubt standard. All redounded to defendant's benefit in the sense that each required the jury, where it had a reasonable doubt as to any included or related offenses or degrees, to find defendant guilty of the lesser included or related offense or lesser degree, that is, to give defendant the benefit of any reasonable doubts it may have had. Granted, the trial court gave specific reasonable doubt benefit instructions only with respect to first and second degree murder (CALJIC No. 8.71) and murder and manslaughter (CALJIC No. 8.72), and did not give such a specific instruction with respect to attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. But that omission alone does not place this case within Dewberry's orbit. A jury instructed that it must give a defendant charged with murder the benefit of any doubt with respect to first and second degree murder but not instructed to that effect generally is obviously different from a jury instructed with respect to the degrees of murder and instructed as the jury was here: [I]f the evidence as to any such specific intent or mental state is susceptible of two reasonable interpretations, one of which points to the existence of the specific intent or mental state and the other to the absence of the specific intent or mental state, you must adopt that interpretation which points to the absence of the specific intent or mental state. In effect, the jury instruction just quoted fulfilled the same function as the instruction proffered by the defendant in People v. Dewberry, supra, 51 Cal.2d at page 554, and erroneously refused by the trial court in that case. There was no instructional error on this score at defendant's trial.