Opinion ID: 1169826
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: First Degree Murder Conviction Based on Allegedly Inadequate Theory

Text: (21) Defendant contends that his first degree murder conviction must be reversed because one of the theories upon which it may have been based is inadequate. He argues that because the evidence he killed Sharon Rawls in the course of a robbery is insufficient to support his murder conviction, and because this court cannot ascertain whether the jury based its decision to convict him of murder on that ground, the murder conviction must be reversed. (See People v. Green, supra, 27 Cal.3d at p. 69.) Contrary to defendant's assertion, however, this court can determine that the jury based its decision on a valid legal theory. In People v. Guiton (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1116 [17 Cal. Rptr.2d 365, 847 P.2d 45], we distinguished cases in which the prosecution relied on a factually inadequate theory from those in which the prosecution's theory was legally inadequate. We held that if the inadequacy of proof is purely factual, reversal is not required whenever a valid ground for the verdict remains, absent an affirmative indication in the record that the verdict actually did rest on the inadequate ground. ( Id. at p. 1129.) We further held that if the inadequacy is legal, the rule requiring reversal applies, absent a basis in the record to find that the verdict was actually based on a valid ground. ( Ibid., fn. omitted.) Because it is possible here to determine from the record that the jury necessarily found defendant guilty on a proper theory ( People v. Guiton, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 1130; see People v. Sedeno (1974) 10 Cal.3d 703, 721 [112 Cal. Rptr. 1, 518 P.2d 913]), there is no need to characterize the claimed inadequacy as either factual or legal. The jury found true the special circumstance allegation that defendant killed Rawls during the attempted commission of a rape. Because a jury must unanimously agree that a special circumstance finding is true (§ 190.4), and the jury in this case was so instructed, the jury's finding that defendant killed Rawls in the course of committing an attempted rape indicates that the jury unanimously found defendant guilty of first degree murder on the valid theory that the killing occurred during the attempted commission of a rape.