Opinion ID: 1303713
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 25

Heading: Application of Special Circumstances Instruction to Penalty Phase

Text: (30) The trial court, in addition to giving specific instructions governing the jury's penalty determination, also instructed the jury to consider any of the previously given instructions which are pertinent to the determination ... of penalty. Defendant argues that such an instruction was inadequate, failing to give proper guidance to the penalty jury regarding the legal principles applicable to its determination. In particular, defendant suggests that the jury might not have remembered certain instructions given during the special circumstances trial which bore on premeditation, deliberation and specific intent. According to defendant, these instructions might have assisted the jury in determining the existence of certain mitigating factors as to his state of mind, such as the presence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance (former § 190.3, subd. (c)), or mental disease, or intoxication ( id., subd. (g)). Defendant fails, however, to convince us of the relevance of any of the special circumstances instructions to the penalty phase. By reason of its verdict finding such special circumstances, the jury necessarily found a willful, deliberate and premeditated murder, rejecting defendant's so-called blackout defense. The trial court reasonably could assume that reinstruction on such issues might only confuse the jury by injecting irrelevant factors into its penalty decision. In the absence of a specific request for such reinstruction, the trial court properly instructed the jury to apply any of the previous instructions that were relevant to the penalty issue. Such a general instruction would not prevent, of course, renewed instruction at the request of defendant or the jurors. No such request occurred here.