Opinion ID: 2545785
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Trial Court's Failure to Instruct on Sympathy

Text: Defendant faults the trial court for not instructing, on its own initiative, that the jury could consider sympathy for defendant as a mitigating circumstance. We have, however, repeatedly held that such an instruction need not be given at the penalty phase of a capital trial (see, e.g., People v. Champion, supra, 9 Cal.4th at p. 943, 39 Cal.Rptr.2d 547, 891 P.2d 93; People v. Clark (1992) 3 Cal.4th 41, 163, 10 Cal.Rptr.2d 554, 833 P.2d 561), and we see no reason to reconsider that holding. Moreover, here the trial court implied that the jury could consider sympathy for defendant when it instructed the jurors that they could consider 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 for which he is on trial (italics added), and that the jurors were free to assign whatever moral or sympathetic value (italics added) they deemed appropriate to the aggravating and mitigating factors they were permitted to consider.