Opinion ID: 1171490
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Defense counsel's stipulation to delete instruction on intoxication from penalty considerations.

Text: Section 190.3, factor (h) (factor (h)), provides that the jury may consider as a mitigating factor, if relevant, [w]hether or not at the time of the offense the capacity of the defendant to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law was impaired as a result of mental disease or defect, or the affects of intoxication. Defense counsel stipulated that the language of factor (h) (and other inapplicable factors) be deleted from the jury instruction on factors for consideration in determining penalty. (Former CALJIC No. 8.84.1; see now CALJIC No. 8.85.) (34a) Now, pointing to the testimony of David Bergman and Jim Prew, and to his own extrajudicial statements indicating he had drunk alcohol and smoked marijuana on the evening of the killings, defendant contends counsel was incompetent in making the stipulation and that the omission of factor (h) language from the instruction prejudiced him. We reject the contention. First, in his penalty phase argument defense counsel urged the jury to entertain a lingering doubt of defendant's guilt. Counsel did not argue that if defendant did commit the crimes, his ability to appreciate the criminality of his conduct was impaired due to intoxication. Moreover, evidence of intoxication was lacking. No witness testified that defendant appeared intoxicated before the murders. No witness testified to the consumption of such a large quantity of drugs or alcohol by defendant as to lead to the conclusion that he was intoxicated. Defendant himself, in his extrajudicial statements, did not suggest that he felt intoxicated. (35) A defendant's mere consumption of drugs or alcohol before the commission of a crime is generally insufficient to warrant an instruction on diminished capacity. ( People v. Miranda (1987) 44 Cal.3d 57, 89 [241 Cal. Rptr. 594, 744 P.2d 1127].) (34b) We find no substantial evidence in this record that defendant was intoxicated when he committed the crimes. Had the omitted instruction been given, the lack of evidence of intoxication makes it unlikely that the jury would have drawn the desired mitigating inference. Defense counsel was not, therefore, incompetent in agreeing that the factor (h) instruction need not be given. That the jury's deliberations were relatively lengthy does not warrant a different conclusion.