Opinion ID: 1199801
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The age of the defendant at the time of the crime.

Text: (j) Whether or not the defendant was an accomplice to the offense and his participation in the commission of the offense was relatively minor. (k) Any other circumstance which extenuates the gravity of the crime even though it is not a legal excuse for the crime and any sympathetic or other aspect of the defendant's character or record that the defendant offers as a basis for a sentence less than death, whether or not related to the offense which he is on trial. You must disregard any jury instruction given to you in the guilt or innocence phase of this trial which conflicts with this principle. (Brackets omitted.) Defendant contends that the penalty factor dealing with the circumstances of the crime, as specified in Penal Code section 190.3 and as set out in the instruction quoted above, is impermissibly vague under the cruel and unusual punishments clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution as construed in Stringer v. Black (1992) 503 U.S. ___ [117 L.Ed.2d 367, 112 S.Ct. 1130], and required clarification by the court even, as here, in the absence of a request. We reject the claim under the holding of People v. Bacigalupo, ante, page 457, at pages 478-479 [24 Cal. Rptr.2d 808, 862 P.2d 808] (hereafter Bacigalupo ). Defendant argues that the court's error was compounded by its refusal of two special instructions he requested, viz., Special Instruction `4' and Special Instruction `10'. (See pt. IV.F., post. ) There was no error to be compounded. [21]