Opinion ID: 2586480
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Jury Instruction Regarding Defendant's Oral Statements

Text: During the penalty retrial, the trial court instructed the jury under CALJIC No. 8.85 that, in deciding penalty, it could consider, among other factors, evidence of the circumstances of the murder under factor (a) and unadjudicated criminal activity alleged under factor (b). The jury also was instructed under CALJIC No. 2.71 that it should view with caution evidence of defendant's admissions offered under factor (b). [27] He contends the trial court violated federal due process principles in failing to give this cautionary instruction with respect to evidence of defendant's admissions offered under factor (a). Preliminarily, defendant's failure to request the desired cautionary instruction forfeited this claim on appeal. (See People v. Marks (2003) 31 Cal.4th 197, 237 [2 Cal.Rptr.3d 252, 72 P.3d 1222]; People v. Arias, supra, 13 Cal.4th 92, 170-171.) In any event, the claim lacks merit. (26) Defendant acknowledges that this court held in People v. Livaditis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 759, 782-784 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 72, 831 P.2d 297] that, absent a request, the trial court is not required to instruct a penalty phase jury to view a defendant's statements with caution under CALJIC No. 2.71. In Livaditis, supra, 2 Cal.4th 759, we observed that, because a defendant's guilt is already established at the penalty phase, [t]he only relevance of the defendant's extrajudicial statements is as either aggravating or mitigating evidence, not as evidence of guilt. ( Id. at p. 783.) Thus, whether a defendant would desire the trial court to give the cautionary instruction is unclear because statements offered during a penalty trial are subject to varying interpretations, some mitigating and some aggravating and that therefore a defendant may not desire a cautionary instruction. ( Id. at pp. 783-784.) Here, because defendant failed to request such an instruction regarding the factor (a) evidence, there was no error in not giving one. In any event, our examination of the record reveals good reason why defendant would not have requested a cautionary instruction under CALJIC No. 2.71. The penalty phase defense attempted to show that, although defendant was remorseful for the murder, he was unable to express such remorse due to his psychological disorder. The defense offered testimony from defendant's former defense lawyer, Jennifer Keller, describing how he admitted the murder and sobbed with remorse. Clearly, defendant would not want the jury instructed to view with caution evidence of his statements and expressions of remorse concerning the murder that went to a crucial part of his penalty defense. Further, any error in failing to instruct the jury to view defendant's statements with caution was harmless. `The purpose of the cautionary instruction is to assist the jury in determining if the statement was in fact made.' ( People v. Livaditis, supra, 2 Cal.4th at p. 784.) In this case, the parties did not dispute that defendant made statements about the crime. Hence, no harm could have resulted from the trial court's failure to provide the cautionary instruction.