Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Election of Lewd and Lascivious Act

Text: Defendant was convicted of engaging in lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under the age of 14 years. (§ 288, subd. (a).) Conviction of this felony underlies his first degree felony murder conviction. Defendant asserts that the jury was presented with several acts, each of which could potentially support a conviction of lewd and lascivious conduct. (28) When this is the case, defendant argues, the either/or rule applies: under that rule,  either the prosecution must select the specific act relied upon to prove the charge or the jury must be instructed ... that it must unanimously agree beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed the same specific criminal act. ( People v. Gordon (1985) 165 Cal. App.3d 839, 853 [212 Cal. Rptr. 174].) Such an instruction is embodied in CALJIC No. 17.01, and is intended to ensure that a verdict of guilty is truly unanimous. The instruction was not given here. Defendant further argues that inasmuch as the underlying felony conviction was erroneous because of that failure to instruct, the first degree murder conviction was also erroneous. The contention is not persuasive. The prosecution presented evidence of three acts, each of which could serve as a basis for a conviction under section 288: forced oral copulation, kissing the victim's nipple, and removing the victim's pants to expose her genitalia. Even were we to agree that CALJIC No. 17.01 or an equivalent instruction should have been given, failure to do so here was clearly harmless error. The jury also convicted defendant on a separate count of forced oral copulation. (§ 288a.) Because that act of forced oral copulation could also support a conviction of lewd and lascivious conduct, there is every reason to believe that a properly instructed jury would have agreed unanimously to convict defendant on the lewd-and-lascivious-act count. Relying on a dictum in People v. Greer (1947) 30 Cal.2d 589, 601-604 [184 P.2d 512], defendant claims that forcible oral copulation, as an offense specifically included in the definition of lewd and lascivious conduct, cannot be the basis for convictions of both section 288 and section 288a. We disapproved the Greer dictum, however, in People v. Pearson (1986) 42 Cal.3d 351, 357-358 [228 Cal. Rptr. 509, 721 P.2d 595].