Opinion ID: 2613228
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Failure to Instruct on Elements of Other Crimes

Text: (24) At the penalty phase, the prosecutor introduced evidence of numerous prior unadjudicated offenses by defendant. (See § 190.3, subd. (b).) The record indicates that defense counsel joined the prosecutor in stipulating that, for tactical reasons, it was unnecessary to instruct the jury regarding the elements of these various offenses. Defendant now claims the trial court nonetheless erred, under both federal and state law, in failing to so instruct sua sponte. The point is wholly without merit. First, on this record, any error in failing to instruct regarding the elements of defendant's prior crimes would be deemed invited error. (See People v. Cooper (1991) 53 Cal.3d 771, 827-831 [281 Cal. Rptr. 90, 809 P.2d 865].) We reject defendant's related assertions that counsel's tactical decision to forgo detailed other crimes instructions (1) required defendant's personal waiver, or (2) amounted to incompetent representation. (See id. at pp. 827-828 [no personal waiver required], 831-832 [counsel's waiver not incompetence]; see also People v. Tuilaepa (1992) 4 Cal.4th 569, 592 [15 Cal. Rptr.2d 382, 842 P.2d 1142].) Second, we have held that, because defense counsel might not want the jury to place undue emphasis on the defendant's prior offenses, the court is not required to give such instructions sua sponte. (See People v. Phillips (1985) 41 Cal.3d 29, 72-73, fn. 25 [222 Cal. Rptr. 127, 711 P.2d 423].) Although defendant asks us to reconsider Phillips, we have frequently relied on its holding and see no reason for reconsideration. (See, e.g., People v. Tuilaepa, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 592; People v. Hardy, supra, 2 Cal.4th at pp. 206-207; People v. Pensinger, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 1267; People v. Clark (1990) 50 Cal.3d 583, 627 [268 Cal. Rptr. 399, 789 P.2d 127].)