Opinion ID: 2563933
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Absence of Limiting Instruction on Victim-impact Evidence

Text: Defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury, on its own motion, concerning the proper use of victim-impact evidence. Although defendant did not request any such instruction in the trial court, she suggests that the following instruction (one proposed, although not mandated, by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Commonwealth v. Means (2001) 565 Pa. 309 [773 A.2d 143, 159]) would have been appropriate: Victim impact evidence is simply another method of informing you about the nature and circumstances of the crime in question. You may consider this evidence in determining an appropriate punishment. However, the law does not deem the life of one victim more valuable than another; rather, victim impact evidence shows that the victim, like the defendant, is a unique individual. Your consideration must be limited to a rational inquiry into the culpability of the defendant, not an emotional response to the evidence. Defendant contends that in the absence of such an instruction, there was nothing to stop raw emotion and other improper considerations from tainting the jury's decision, in violation of her right to a decision by a rational and properly instructed jury, the due process right to a fair trial, and the right to a fair and reliable capital-penalty determination. (U.S. Const., 6th, 8th, & 14th Amends.; Cal. Const., art. I, §§ 7, 15, 16 & 17.) We previously have rejected these same contentions. In People v. Zamudio, supra, 43 Cal.4th at pages 369-370, we found unpersuasive an argument that the trial court has a duty to give such an instruction on its own motion. We concluded that (1) the first two sentences of defendant's proposed instruction were covered adequately by CALJIC No. 8.85, which also was read to the jury in the present case; (2) defendant's proposed instruction is incorrect to the extent it suggests that a juror's emotional response to the evidence may play no part in his or her decision; and (3) an instruction informing the jurors that the law does not deem the life of one victim more valuable than another is not necessary to the jury's understanding of [the] case. ( People v. Zamudio, supra, 43 Cal.4th at p. 370.)