Opinion ID: 1454621
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: The Willfully False Statement Instruction

Text: (45) Defendant assigns as reversible error the following instruction to the jury: If you find that before this trial the defendant made willfully false or deliberately misleading statements concerning the charges upon which he is now being tried, you may consider such statements as a circumstance tending to prove a consciousness of guilt, but it is not sufficient of itself to prove guilt. The weight to be given such a circumstance and its significance, if any, are matters for your deliberation. Although acknowledging the instruction is appropriate in some cases, defendant maintains that it violated his due process rights because his pretrial statements were inculpatory and he himself testified that they were false. He argues that if the jury found his pretrial statements to be false, it should have found him innocent and not conscious of guilt as the instruction suggests. Defendant misreads the instruction. At the threshold, it required the jury to determine whether defendant made willfully false or deliberately misleading pretrial statements concerning the charges. If the jury found defendant made no such statements (e.g., because his pretrial admissions of guilt were true), it also necessarily found the balance of the instruction inapplicable. If, on the contrary, the jury found defendant made at least some false statements (e.g., that he did not intend to kill Van Zandt or that Barrett encouraged him to commit the crimes), it could reasonably infer consciousness of guilt. In either event, defendant's case was not prejudiced by the instruction. Particularly when, as here, the trial court further instructed that there may be reasons for false statements consistent with innocence, such as attempts to protect another, defendant had a full opportunity to argue his case. There was no error.