Opinion ID: 1419202
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Special Finding or Special Verdict

Text: (19) Perry contends that the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury to return a special finding of fact or a special verdict was improper. [15] In contrast to the rules governing civil actions, [16] there is no statute which authorizes the judge to submit special interrogatories to the jury in a criminal case. Penal Code section 1150 does provide that a jury may, when it is in doubt as to the legal effect of the facts proved, return a special verdict. The verdict must present the jury's conclusions of fact and must be so presented that nothing remains to the Court but to draw conclusions of law upon them. (Pen. Code, § 1152.) Under these provisions, defendant's special verdict form is defective in several respects. First, the form requires the jury to determine the sufficiency of the corroborating evidence before considering any other issues. Second, the form instructs the jury that it must return a special verdict. Third, the form requires the jury to reach a legal conclusion on the state of the evidence rather than a verdict based upon the facts. The trial court properly rejected defendant's requested jury instruction.