Opinion ID: 1226896
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Testimony of Informer

Text: (35) The trial court did not instruct the jury that they should consider the testimony of an informer to be inherently unreliable and that they should view it with caution. Defendant now contends that the trial court's failure to so instruct, even absent a request, was error. He argues that at least when, as here, a man's life is at stake, such an instruction is required by state law and, apparently, by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We reject the claim. We have repeatedly held that a court does not err by failing to instruct the jurors, sua sponte, to consider an informer's testimony to be inherently unreliable and to view it with caution. (E.g., People v. Bonin (1989) 47 Cal.3d 808, 849 [254 Cal. Rptr. 298, 765 P.2d 460].) We have also held, impliedly but clearly, that even in a capital case such an instruction is not required by California statutory or decisional law (see People v. Hovey (1988) 44 Cal.3d 543, 565-566 [244 Cal. Rptr. 121, 749 P.2d 776]) or by the guaranty of due process of law of either the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution or article I, sections 7 and 15, of the California Constitution (see People v. Malone (1988) 47 Cal.3d 1, 27 [252 Cal. Rptr. 525, 762 P.2d 1249]).