Opinion ID: 1375029
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: Failing to Instruct Jury to Consider Defendant's Background

Text: The jury was instructed to take into account [a]ny other circumstance which extenuates the gravity of the crime even though it is not a legal excuse of the crime[,] and any sympathetic or other aspect of the defendant's character or record as a basis for a sentence less than death.... Some of the testimony of defendant's sister, offered in mitigation, described aspects of his background. He contends that the court violated the Eighth Amendment by tilting the jury's determination in favor of death when it failed to instruct sua sponte that the jury must also consider background as well as character or record.... In People v. Webb (1993) 6 Cal.4th 494, 534 [24 Cal. Rptr.2d 779, 862 P.2d 779], we stated that giving an instruction containing language very similar to that quoted hereabove left no possibility the jury misunderstood its obligation to consider defendant's character and background evidence.... Webb is dispositive. There was no error, and no violation of any constitutional right.