Opinion ID: 1399120
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: claims of error affecting penalty phase

Text: After the jury returned its verdict in the guilt phase of trial, but before the penalty trial began, defendant moved, under section 190.4, subdivision (c) [16] (hereafter section 190.4(c)), to reopen voir dire or for impanelment of a new jury for the penalty phase. Defense counsel stated he did not know, when the jury was selected, that Brian Buckley would be testifying against defendant. As a consequence, counsel contended, he had not had an adequate opportunity to question prospective jurors about bias associated with a coperpetrator's testimony. The trial court denied the motion, ruling that even if defense counsel would have conducted voir dire differently knowing that Buckley was to testify, any claim of prejudice was purely speculative and did not establish good cause for relief. (30) Defendant now contends the ruling denied him his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Federal Constitution. We conclude that the trial court did not err. We have often observed that section 190.4(c) reflects the long-standing legislative preference for a single jury to determine both guilt and penalty. ( People v. Nicolaus (1991) 54 Cal.3d 551, 572 [286 Cal. Rptr. 628, 817 P.2d 893]; People v. Taylor (1990) 52 Cal.3d 719, 738 [276 Cal. Rptr. 391, 801 P.2d 1142]; People v. Ainsworth, supra, 45 Cal.3d at p. 1029; People v. Gates (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1168, 1199 [240 Cal. Rptr. 666, 743 P.2d 301].) Defendant suggests that the efficiency concerns in which this preference is (at least in part) rooted should have given way in his case, because reopening voir dire would not have consumed much time. His argument reflects a misunderstanding of our decisions applying section 190.4(c). Voir dire is not to be reopened on speculation that good cause to impanel a new jury may thereby be discovered; rather, a showing of good cause is a prerequisite to reopening. ( People v. Gates, supra, 43 Cal.3d at p. 1199.) Defendant has raised only speculation that some jurors may have entertained some hidden bias regarding the testimony of a coperpetrator or that they may have prejudged the issue of penalty. He fails to establish error, constitutional or otherwise. Defendant also complains that prosecutorial misconduct  in the form of concealment of Buckley's status as a witness  prevented defense counsel from conducting appropriate voir dire. We disagree. Although the trial court accepted, for purposes of argument, defense counsel's representation that he was surprised that Buckley became a prosecution witness, a review of the chronology of pertinent events lessens the weight that might otherwise be accorded to the trial court's statement. Buckley was arrested and arraigned before the conclusion of Hovey ( People v. Hovey (1988) 44 Cal.3d 543 [244 Cal. Rptr. 121, 749 P.2d 776]) voir dire in defendant's case; Buckley's preliminary hearing was held before counsel began to question the first 12 seated jurors; and defense counsel acknowledged that he had heard, even before Buckley's arraignment, that the prosecution was going to offer to let Buckley plead guilty to second degree murder if he would testify against defendant. It is also noteworthy that, shortly before the commencement of voir dire, the trial court granted defendant's motion to exclude his confession on the basis of Miranda v. Arizona, supra, 384 U.S. 436. Defendant points out that the prosecution moved to prevent him from calling Buckley as a witness in order to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination in the presence of the jury, and that the motion remained pending until after the jury was seated. He also notes that Buckley signed his plea agreement on the day the prosecutor made his opening statement, although the prosecutor had not disclosed the existence of any negotiations with Buckley. However, in light of the other circumstances known to defense counsel, these facts cannot be deemed controlling. Nothing prevented defense counsel from conducting voir dire in light of what seems in hindsight to have been a realistic possibility that Buckley would testify against defendant. He may not now complain about his decision not to do so. [17]
(31) Defendant contends he was deprived of due process, a fair and impartial jury, protection against cruel and unusual punishment, and a reliable penalty determination because the trial judge told six of the twelve jurors who decided the guilt and penalty phases, during individual Hovey voir dire, that they would be asked to make a recommendation as to the appropriate penalty. (All other jurors were told they would be asked to determine or decide the penalty.) He also contends that the word determination is itself insufficient to convey the ultimacy of the jury's task. We disagree. A death sentence may not constitutionally rest on a determination made by a sentencer who has been led to believe that the responsibility for determining the appropriateness of the defendant's execution lies elsewhere. ( Caldwell v. Mississippi (1985) 472 U.S. 320, 328-329 [86 L.Ed.2d 231, 239-240, 105 S.Ct. 2633].) However, our review of the record establishes that none of the jurors could have been under any misapprehension as to the nature of their duty. Portions of Hovey voir dire not cited by defendant, the trial court's instructions, and arguments of counsel emphasized that the decision as to life or death was for the jury alone. Neither the prosecutor nor the trial court suggested that the jury's decision would be reviewed for correctness and appropriateness. We do not believe that the trial court's comments during Hovey voir dire could have had a greater impact on the jurors than its penalty phase instructions and the arguments of counsel. We also find no merit in defendant's contention that the word determine conveyed to the jurors the impression that their task was mediate rather than final. Webster's New International Dictionary (2d ed. 1957), at page 711, includes among the definitions of determine that of to fix conclusively or authoritatively. Defendant was not deprived of his constitutional right to a sentencing body fully apprised of its weighty responsibility.

Defendant contends that the way in which the jury considered evidence of previously unadjudicated crimes he allegedly committed violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. Specifically, he asserts that: (1) the jury should have been required to unanimously find each of the allegations of criminal activity true beyond a reasonable doubt before considering them in aggravation; and (2) the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the unadjudicated crimes without first finding beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed those crimes.
(32) Defense counsel argued that the jury should be instructed to deliberate and make findings as to each of the five unadjudicated crimes in evidence. The trial court disagreed, instructing that the determination whether to consider unadjudicated criminal activity as an aggravating circumstance is made individually by each juror. Defendant contends the court erred. We have rejected defendant's argument in the past, and he does not persuade us to depart from our prior decisions. Although defendant is entitled to a unanimous jury verdict in the final determination of penalty, the law does not require a unanimous finding as to any unadjudicated crime offered in aggravation. ( People v. Miranda (1987) 44 Cal.3d 57, 99 [241 Cal. Rptr. 594, 744 P.2d 1127].) The trial court correctly instructed that each juror must make an individual determination whether the prosecution proved other criminal activity beyond a reasonable doubt before considering that activity in aggravation. ( Ibid.; see People v. Robertson (1982) 33 Cal.3d 21, 53 [188 Cal. Rptr. 77, 655 P.2d 279].) Contrary to defendant's argument, neither the instruction nor the prosecutor's argument that it was unnecessary for the jurors to take a vote on each unadjudicated crime discouraged deliberation. Defendant argues that the jurors' tasks were complicated and difficult. Indeed, they were, as the deliberative processes in penalty trials not uncommonly are. But the jurors received the instructions necessary to ensure the reliability of their determination. Defendant contends he is denied meaningful appellate review of his sentence because we cannot know how the jury viewed the evidence. His argument proves too much; reviewing courts can never probe jurors' deliberations, but this inescapable fact does not vitiate the appellate process. (33) For the first time in his reply brief, defendant makes the argument that the refusal to require specific written findings on unadjudicated offenses in the penalty phase violated his right to equal protection of the laws. A defendant subject to the imposition of a sentence enhancement under section 12022.5 is entitled to such a finding, he argues, while a capital defendant against whom unadjudicated offenses are alleged is not. He fails to recognize that the capital defendant and the defendant subject to the section 12022.5 enhancement are not similarly situated. The latter receives enhanced punishment for his use of a firearm in the commission of a crime; the former receives punishment not for the unadjudicated crimes but for the murder with special circumstances of which he has been found guilty.
(34) Defendant contends the trial court erred in admitting evidence of the Church and Dowdy killings to show prior violent criminal activity. (§ 190.3, factor (b).) His involvement in the killings was shown by circumstantial evidence and by his own admissions to Brian Buckley and Tony Maestas. He urges that the evidence should have been excluded because the prosecution did not first prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed each crime. We disagree. In People v. Phillips, supra, 41 Cal.3d 29, we observed that when the prosecution seeks to introduce evidence of other criminal activity in the penalty phase of trial, it may be advisable for the trial court to conduct a preliminary inquiry (out of the presence of the jury) to determine whether there is substantial evidence to prove each element of the other criminal activity. ( Id. at p. 72, fn. 25.) Such a procedure is strictly a matter of trial court discretion. The trial court in this case, in its discretion, conducted such a hearing, at which the corpus delicti of each killing was amply established. As to the murder of David Church, evidence adduced at the Phillips hearing  which was largely similar to that later introduced before the jury  showed that during the early part of the summer of 1986, while defendant was staying at Brian Buckley's apartment, Buckley gave a party attended by defendant, Chris Caldwell, and others. Church was among a group of people who arrived at the party about 10 p.m. and stayed for 10 to 20 minutes. A half hour later, Church returned alone. Because he was drunk, Buckley did not want him around. Defendant, Buckley, and Caldwell took Church downstairs. At Caldwell's direction, Buckley then returned to the party. Fifteen minutes later, defendant and Caldwell reentered Buckley's apartment. Defendant said he had scared Church and slashed his bicycle tires with a knife. Caldwell took an ax handle and the keys to Buckley's mother's car and, with defendant, went downstairs. Buckley saw Church sitting at the bottom of the stairs. After midnight, he did not see Church again. The next morning, Buckley saw a 10-speed bicycle with slashed tires at the apartment. Defendant and Caldwell said they were going to get rid of the bicycle because defendant's knife could be traced from the slashes. By the third day after the party, the bicycle was gone. Three days after the party, defendant told Buckley that he and Caldwell had killed Church. Caldwell had already told Buckley that. A couple of days later, defendant, Caldwell, and Buckley had another conversation about the Church killing. Defendant said he hit Church across the head with the ax handle, that Church was pretty tough. Caldwell told Buckley how hard Church was to kill. A week later, defendant and Buckley were standing outside Buckley's apartment. Defendant was holding the ax handle, stating that he had to throw it away because there was blood on it. Fred Helmuth, a friend of David Church, testified that after the evening of the visit to Buckley's apartment, he never saw Church again. Dr. Frederick Lovell testified that he examined human remains found under a mound of rocks in a riverbed in Aliso Canyon near Santa Paula on July 29, 1986. The body was decomposed, the little remaining skin being mummified. Dr. Lovell estimated that the deceased had been dead more than six weeks, to an upper limit of six to ten months. After performing an autopsy, Dr. Lovell was unable to determine the cause of death. A comparison study of X-rays established that the dead man was David Church. Clearly, the proof adduced at the Phillips hearing ( supra, 41 Cal.3d 29), apart from defendant's extrajudicial statements to Brian Buckley, created a reasonable inference that David Church died by criminal agency, and thus sufficed to permit the admission into evidence of those statements. ( People v. Towler (1982) 31 Cal.3d 105, 115 [181 Cal. Rptr. 391, 641 P.2d 1253].) Just as clearly, the weight of the proof, including the statements, must be described as substantial. The trial court correctly allowed the evidence to go to the jury. As to the killing of Jack Dowdy, Jr., the proof adduced at the Phillips hearing likewise sufficed to permit the introduction of defendant's extrajudicial admissions and to warrant presentation of the evidence to the jury. Dowdy's father testified that he never saw his son after the latter left for Albuquerque, where he was to attend a union-sponsored trade school. Kim Dowdy, whose marriage to Jack Dowdy had not been dissolved, testified about defendant's violently possessive behavior toward her. Jane Davis, Dowdy's sister, testified that after a family gathering she saw defendant make a motion toward Dowdy with his hand inside his pocket, where Ms. Davis knew defendant kept a gun. Pam Lester, Dowdy's girlfriend, overheard the victim and defendant talking about Kim Dowdy shortly before Dowdy's disappearance. Dowdy was supposed to call Lester after the first day of his trade school, but did not. Jackie Sumner, the cousin with whom Dowdy was staying while attending school, last saw him early on the morning of the first day of his classes; he never returned to her home to pick up his clothes. The trade school records showed that Dowdy attended his first scheduled day of a week of classes, but did not return thereafter. He would have received $447.42 for completing his classes. Based on this evidence, the trial court did not err in admitting defendant's statements to Brian Buckley about his role in Dowdy's killing. That Dowdy was murdered was a reasonable inference from the evidence that he left his property behind and disappeared, without completing trade school and without ever contacting his girlfriend or the relatives with whom he enjoyed a close relationship. (See People v. Johnson (1991) 233 Cal. App.3d 425, 439-442 [284 Cal. Rptr. 579] [to establish corpus delicti, evidence need not negate all possibilities of the victim's death by noncriminal agency or of the victim's continued existence].) The court also correctly concluded that the evidence of defendant's guilt, including his admissions to Buckley, his relationship with Kim Dowdy and his apparent assault on Jack Dowdy, was substantial enough to go to the jury. [18]
(35) Defendant contends that the trial court erred in relying on the doctrine of adoptive admissions to admit testimony by Pamela McCormick linking him to the Church murder. [19] Over defense counsel's hearsay objections, the trial court allowed McCormick to testify that, on the morning after the party to which Church repeatedly had attempted to gain entrance, she was asleep in Brian Buckley's apartment until voices awakened her. Feigning sleep, she recognized three participants in the conversation: Chris Caldwell, Brian Buckley, and defendant. She heard them say that they had to get rid of his body, something about ammonia, and something about finding a half-gram of cocaine on his body. She also heard them talk about having to get rid of his bicycle. She did not open her eyes during the conversation and could not identify which man made any of the statements she related. However, she heard defendant's voice, as well as Caldwell's and Buckley's, during the conversation. The adoptive admission exception to the hearsay rule is expressed in Evidence Code section 1221. That statute provides that [e]vidence of a statement offered against a party is not made inadmissible by the hearsay rule if the statement is one of which the party, with knowledge of the content thereof, has by words or other conduct manifested his adoption or his belief in its truth. (Evid. Code, § 1221.) A leading case explicating adoptive admissions is People v. Preston (1973) 9 Cal.3d 308 [107 Cal. Rptr. 300, 508 P.2d 300]. In Preston, we held that [i]f a person is accused of having committed a crime, under circumstances which fairly afford him an opportunity to hear, understand, and to reply, and which do not lend themselves to an inference that he was relying on the right of silence guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and he fails to speak, or he makes an evasive or equivocal reply, both the accusatory statement and the fact of silence or equivocation may be offered as an implied or adoptive admission of guilt. ( Id. at pp. 313-314.) Defendant contends that the statements McCormick related cannot properly come in as adoptive admissions because they were not accusatory statements and called for no particular reply. For the adoptive admission exception to apply, however, a direct accusation in so many words is not essential. In Preston, for example, the defendant was charged with the murders of the witness's mother and stepfather. The witness testified that she and the defendant, along with his coperpetrator, were in the defendant's room. The coperpetrator said to the witness, `Suzanne, we went down to your mother's trailer house, and we broke in, and as we were leaving, we had everything ready to go out, and they came in, and there was an accident and ... but they won't talk.' ( People v. Preston, supra, 9 Cal.3d at p. 314.) The defendant then looked at the witness and said, `There wasn't much money.' ( Ibid. ) Although the statements were not accusatory on their face, we concluded they accused the defendant of being in the victims' trailer with the coperpetrator when the killings took place. We noted the statements were voluntarily made in the course of a private conversation in a private home. These circumstances supported the inferences that the defendant heard and understood the statements and had the opportunity to deny them, and that he chose to remain silent except for an evasive and equivocal statement. They were, therefore, properly allowed as adoptive admissions. (See also People v. Medina (1990) 51 Cal.3d 870, 889-891 [274 Cal. Rptr. 849, 799 P.2d 1282] [silence and evasive statements by defendant in response to his sister's query why he shot victims were properly allowed in evidence as adoptive admissions, although conversation took place while defendant was in custody].) Similarly, in this case the testimony indicated that defendant participated without demur in a private conversation during which the disposition of Church's remains and his bicycle was discussed. The circumstances afforded defendant the opportunity to deny responsibility, to refuse to participate, or otherwise to dissociate himself from the planned activity; he did not do so. Defendant complains that McCormick did not testify as to whether he actually heard the statements, but we find it entirely reasonable to infer that preliminary fact from her testimony that he participated in the conversation. This case is thus distinguishable from People v. Lebell (1979) 89 Cal. App.3d 772, 779-780 [152 Cal. Rptr. 840], on which defendant relies. In Lebell, a police officer testified about his telephone conversation with a murder suspect. The suspect called from Lebell's home and the officer heard Lebell's voice in the background while the suspect made his incriminating statements. The Court of Appeal held that the trial court erred in determining that Lebell's presence was sufficient to support a finding of adoptive admission. The preliminary facts  that Lebell heard the suspect's admissions, and that there was reason or opportunity to respond  were inadequately established. ( Id. at p. 780.) The same cannot be said in this case. Defendant also notes that McCormick, who kept her eyes shut during the conversation, would have been unable to observe a silent response by defendant, such as a shocked look, that she was unable to tell which of the participants said what, and that she had ingested a lot of cocaine the preceding night. His observations go to the weight rather than the admissibility of her testimony. [20] Moreover, the court appropriately instructed the jury on adoptive admissions, warning it to view them with caution. [21] Contrary to defendant's assertion, the jury was not told to view the statements to which McCormick testified as admissions by defendant; rather, after defining adoptive admissions, the trial court instructed the jurors that they were the exclusive judges of whether an adopted admission was made and of its truth. Defendant argues that the trial court's instruction was deficient for failure to require the jury to consider whether there were admissions made that defendant could adopt. Examination of the instruction compels us to disagree.

Defendant contends the trial court erred prejudicially in excluding certain evidence at the penalty phase. He argues that Jackie Sumner should have been permitted to testify that Dowdy had confided in her that: (1) he had heard that Kim Dowdy had put out a contract on his life; (2) there was enmity between Kim and himself; and (3) he anticipated a custody battle over their infant son. He also argues that the trial court erred in sustaining the prosecutor's hearsay objection to a question asking Pam Lester whether an individual called Ted had told her he had seen Dowdy after the latter was supposed to have disappeared. Finally, defendant contends that the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to testify that he had refused an offer to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without possibility of parole. We consider each of these contentions separately.
Dowdy spent the night before he disappeared with his cousin, Jackie Sumner, at her home in Albuquerque. On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Sumner if Dowdy had talked with her about a custody battle over his son. The trial court sustained hearsay and relevancy objections. To demonstrate relevancy, defense counsel made an offer of proof that Jack Dowdy had heard that Kim Dowdy put a contract out on his life, that there was a great deal of enmity between Jack and Kim Dowdy, and that Dowdy was concerned about a custody battle over his son. Regarding the hearsay objection, defense counsel offered the statements to impeach Kim Dowdy, who, he represented, had earlier testified that there was no problem between her and Jack and that they maintained a relationship because of their son. Finding the statements unreliable, the trial court sustained the objection on both grounds advanced by the prosecutor. (36) Defendant now contends that the statements were not hearsay, but rather went to Dowdy's state of mind shortly before he disappeared. We agree. The statements could not have been offered to prove that Kim Dowdy had in fact put a contract out on Jack, or that there was enmity between Jack and Kim, or that a custody battle was imminent; they were, however, relevant to suggest attitudes or beliefs that might have led Jack to choose to disappear without a trace. (See Evid. Code, § 1200, subd. (a).) As nonhearsay evidence relevant to a disputed issue (i.e., whether Dowdy was murdered or had voluntarily disappeared), it should have been admitted unless some other rule dictated its exclusion. (Evid. Code, § 351.) No such rule is suggested to us. Defendant's trial counsel did not, however, specifically raise this ground of admissibility. In these circumstances he is precluded from complaining on appeal. (Evid. Code, § 354, subd. (a); Lorenzana v. Superior Court, supra, 9 Cal.3d at p. 640; People v. Frye, supra, 166 Cal. App.3d at p. 950.) Defendant also suggests his trial counsel's performance was in this respect constitutionally inadequate. (See People v. Pope, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 425.) We need not decide whether trial counsel was deficient, however, because defendant cannot in any event establish the prejudice requisite to relief. ( People v. Stankewitz, supra, 51 Cal.3d at p. 113.) In light of the evidence that defendant in effect admitted to three witnesses his responsibility for Dowdy's death, it is not reasonably probable that a result more favorable to him would have resulted from presentation of the excluded testimony.
(37) Defendant claims error in trial court rulings that sustained hearsay and relevancy objections to questions aimed at eliciting the out-of-court statements of a man who claimed to have seen Dowdy after the latter's disappearance. Asked Did you ever hear from anyone that they had seen Mr. Dowdy?, Pam Lester responded in the affirmative. She testified that about two weeks after Dowdy was last seen, a man calling himself Ted visited her. She described Ted, whom she had never before seen, in some detail, and stated she gave this information to a detective. When defense counsel asked Lester what exactly Ted told her, the trial court sustained the prosecutor's hearsay objection. Defendant does not deny that defense counsel's question called for hearsay, but contends he is entitled to a relaxation of the rules of evidence. We disagree. The proffered testimony lacks indicia of reliability sufficient to compel its admission under the authority of Green v. Georgia (1979) 442 U.S. 95 [60 L.Ed.2d 738, 99 S.Ct. 2150], especially in the absence of any showing as to Ted's identity or relationship to Dowdy. Consequently, we find no error, constitutional or otherwise, in the trial court's ruling. In any event, on cross-examination Lester stated she had met a man who claimed to have seen Dowdy after his disappearance and that she had so informed a detective. Defense counsel thus succeeded in suggesting to the jury that, contrary to the prosecution's theory, Dowdy was still alive.
(38) Defendant urges the trial court erred in excluding evidence that the prosecutor had offered, and defendant had refused, the opportunity to plead guilty to murder and testify against Caldwell and Buckley in return for a sentence of life without possibility of parole. Defense counsel sought to introduce evidence of defendant's refusal as mitigating character evidence showing loyalty to his friends. After a series of hearings, the trial court ruled the evidence inadmissible under Evidence Code section 352. The trial court reasoned that the low probative value of the evidence was outweighed by the danger of its confusing and misleading the jury. The trial court also found a possibility of undue consumption of time. We find no abuse of discretion and no violation of constitutional guarantees in the ruling. While it is true, as defendant contends, a capital defendant must be allowed to present all relevant mitigating evidence to the jury ( Skipper v. South Carolina (1986) 476 U.S. 1, 4 [90 L.Ed.2d 1, 6-7, 106 S.Ct. 1669]; Lockett v. Ohio (1978) 438 U.S. 586, 604 [57 L.Ed.2d 973, 989-990, 98 S.Ct. 2954]), the trial court determines relevancy in the first instance and retains discretion to exclude evidence whose probative value is substantially outweighed by the probability that its admission will create substantial danger of confusing the issues or misleading the jury. (Evid. Code, § 352; see, e.g., People v. Allen (1986) 42 Cal.3d 1222, 1284-1285 [232 Cal. Rptr. 849, 729 P.2d 115].) The trial court's determination that defendant's refusal of a plea offer fell into the category of excludable evidence was not clearly wrong. As an indication of defendant's character, the refusal in itself was meaningless. Defendant disputes this conclusion. Trial counsel argued that the mere fact of defendant's refusal tended to show that he was loyal to friends. Appellate counsel now suggests the evidence additionally showed that defendant would get along well in prison, that he believed in his own innocence, and that he was willing to trust the judicial system. [22] While it is true that any of the characteristics defendant posits may have been a factor in his refusal, it is also possible to infer other reasons not reflecting so favorably on defendant's character. The mere fact that defendant declined the plea offer could not have significantly helped the jury determine the appropriate penalty. [23] To supply meaning to the bare fact of the refusal, additional inquiry regarding the underlying reasons would have been required. Such examination, as the trial court concluded, had the potential to mislead and confuse the jury. Consequently, we cannot agree that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding the evidence that defendant refused the plea offer. Defendant contends that exclusion of the evidence was improper because his refusal of the plea offer was part of his record and background, inasmuch as it happened and involved him. As such, he urges, it could not be excluded as cumulative. He reads too much into section 190.3, factor (k), in implying that a defendant is entitled to put before the jury evidence of every event that has ever happened to him. Defendant also argues that the fact that the prosecution made the offer was relevant and admissible character evidence. We do not agree. The fact that the offer was made, like the fact that it was refused, is susceptible of numerous inferences. Standing alone, it sheds no light on defendant's character, and would likely mislead rather than assist the jury in its determination. As the People point out, such an offer may reflect leniency rather than a belief that the defendant is less culpable for the crime charged. Defendant notes that the prosecutor could have testified as to his reasons for making the offer. However, the trial court could, as it did, properly conclude that such testimony would have unduly prolonged the trial and drawn the jury's attention to issues having no bearing on aggravating and mitigating factors. Defendant asserts that the California Constitution favors allowing defendants to present evidence of plea offers, since plea bargains are disfavored. (See § 1192.7.) A rule allowing admission of rejected plea offers by which defendants in capital cases could have avoided the death penalty might indeed deter prosecutors from using threats of death penalty charges to coerce plea bargains. However, defendant cites no authority for the notion that such extrinsic policy concerns should inform the trial courts' rulings under Evidence Code section 352. Defendant argues that in excluding the evidence of his refusal, the trial court erroneously placed on him the burden of producing evidence sufficient to persuade the jury to return a sentence other than death. His interpretation of the trial court's ruling is unsupported by the record.
(39) Defendant complains that CALJIC No. 8.84.1, as read to the jury, invited improper multiple counting of the unitary course of conduct involved in his murder of Thomas Urell. He contends a reasonable juror would have considered the facts of the Urell murder first as circumstances of the crime, second as special circumstances (§ 190.3, factor (a)), and third as instances of other criminal activity (§ 190.3, factor (b)). He also argues a reasonable juror would have improperly stacked the robbery and burglary special circumstances of the Urell crime. These defects in the instruction, he contends, violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. We have rejected the same arguments in the past, holding that the instructions as a whole invite reasonable jurors neither to weigh each special circumstance twice ( People v. Melton (1988) 44 Cal.3d 713, 768-769 [244 Cal. Rptr. 867, 750 P.2d 741]) nor to count the circumstances of the present crime under both factors (a) and (b) of section 190.3 ( People v. Bonin (1988) 46 Cal.3d 659, 703 [250 Cal. Rptr. 687, 758 P.2d 1217]). This case is governed by our earlier decisions, since nothing in the prosecutor's arguments invited the jury to make the type of improper use of the Urell evidence that defendant suggests. [24]
(40a) Defendant contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to limit cross-examination of himself, at the penalty phase, to his reasons for his rejection of the plea bargain. Of course, since we have determined that evidence of the plea offer was properly excluded, this claim is largely moot. However, since defendant contends this ruling denied him his right to testify, we make the following observations. Defendant wished to testify regarding his refusal of the offer only if he could be shielded from cross-examination. In response to the trial court's ruling that he would have to explain why he rejected the offer, defendant offered to testify that the offer was made, that he rejected it, and that there were three reasons for rejecting it: (1) that he did not want to stipulate to spending the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole; (2) that he did not want to testify against people he considered to be his friends; and (3) that he would be extremely concerned about spending the rest of his life in state prison labelled an informant. The trial court ruled that if defendant so testified, then the prosecutor would be entitled to cross-examine defendant on his character traits of loyalty and helpfulness to his friends, including Jack Dowdy, Jr. Defendant did not testify, and now contends the trial court's ruling denied him his right to testify in his own defense. (41) It is true, of course, that when a defendant chooses to testify on his own behalf, the privilege against self-incrimination serves `to prevent the prosecution from questioning [him] upon the case generally, and in effect making him its own witness.' ( People v. Schader (1969) 71 Cal.2d 761, 770 [80 Cal. Rptr. 1, 457 P.2d 841], quoting People v. Gallagher (1893) 100 Cal. 466, 475 [35 P. 80]; Cal. Const., art. I, § 15; U.S. Const., Amends. V, XIV; see also Evid. Code, § 773, subd. (a).) Such general compelled cross-examination would not only pose the same `cruel trilemma of self-accusation, perjury or contempt' recognized in Murphy v. Waterfront Com., [(1964)], 378 U.S. 52, 55 [12 L.Ed.2d 678, 681, 84 S.Ct. 1594]; it would also penalize and thereby deter a defendant's assertion of his right to take the witness stand to explain or contradict a particular aspect of the case against him. ( People v. Schader, supra, 71 Cal.2d at p. 770, fn. omitted.) As defendant asserts, the breadth of the waiver of his privilege is determined by the scope of the testimony he presents. (40b) Had he testified, as he proposed, regarding his reluctance to testify against his friends, the prosecution would have been entitled to introduce evidence through cross-examination that explained or refuted his statements or the inferences necessarily to be drawn from them, or that tended to overcome or qualify the effect of the testimony given on direct examination. ( Id. at pp. 770-771.) An inference naturally and necessarily to be drawn from the fact of defendant's reluctance to testify against his friends is that he possessed traits of loyalty, helpfulness, or concern toward them. Given the testimony that defendant and Jack Dowdy were longtime friends, the trial court properly ruled that the defendant could be cross-examined regarding matters bearing on his loyalty, helpfulness, or concern toward Dowdy, although he could not be cross-examined regarding the Urell or Church killings.
(42) Defendant contends that the trial court's failure to require the jury to make written findings regarding the truth of the alleged aggravating circumstances and other determinations implicit in its sentencing choice violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. We reject his contention; written findings disclosing the reasons for the jury's penalty determination are not required. ( People v. Belmontes, supra, 45 Cal.3d 744, 805; see also Harris v. Pulley (9th Cir.1982) 692 F.2d 1189, 1195-1196, vacated and remanded on other grounds, Pulley v. Harris (1984) 465 U.S. 37 [79 L.Ed.2d 29, 104 S.Ct. 871].)