Opinion ID: 2625727
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Applicability of Guilt Phase Instructions

Text: The court instructed the jury: You are to be guided by previous instructions given in the first phase of this trial which are applicable and pertinent to the determination of penalty. However, you are to completely disregard any instructions given in the first phase which had prohibited you from considering pity or sympathy for the defendant. In determining penalty, the jury shall take into consideration pity and sympathy for the defendant. (12) Defendant recognizes that the court was not required to reinstruct the jury with guilt phase instructions, as a general rule. However, he contends the court's penalty phase instructions were misleading and incomplete because the court did not specify which guilt phase instructions were applicable, and because it did repeat two guilt phase instructions, one defining possession and one on witness credibility. Thus, defendant argues, the jury may have believed that only the repeated instructions were applicable, and not other critical instructions like the definition of reasonable doubt. Defendant also claims the jury may have been misled by the court's instruction to disregard the prohibition on considering sympathy, because that guilt phase instruction had also informed the jury not to consider the consequences of its verdict. He asserts that the jurors may improperly have continued to ignore the consequences of the penalty verdict. [14] These claims are meritless. The court was not required to specify the applicable guilt phase instructions. ( People v. Rogers (2006) 39 Cal.4th 826, 903-904 [48 Cal.Rptr.3d 1, 141 P.3d 135].) Nor was it necessary to reinstruct the jury on reasonable doubt. ( Rogers, at p. 905; People v. Rodrigues (1994) 8 Cal.4th 1060, 1191 [36 Cal.Rptr.2d 235, 885 P.2d 1].) It makes no difference that the court repeated two guilt phase instructions. The jury was provided with all guilt phase instructions in writing and told to consider those that were pertinent to their penalty deliberations. Defendant's suggestion that the court's direction to consider pity and sympathy may have led the jury to disregard the consequences of its decision strains credulity. We presume that jurors are intelligent and capable of understanding and applying the court's instructions. ( People v. Lewis (2001) 26 Cal.4th 334, 390 [110 Cal.Rptr.2d 272, 28 P.3d 34].)