Opinion ID: 1122547
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Special instruction F: viewing with caution the testimony related to defendant's confessions

Text: (28) Defense counsel proffered special instruction F (set forth in fn. 23), directing the jury to view with caution the testimony relating to defendant's confessions, and focusing upon specific evidentiary factors relevant to the prosecution witnesses who testified that defendant confessed to committing the Bautista murders. [23] The prosecutor objected on multiple grounds, among them that the instruction was duplicative and argumentative. The trial court declined to instruct the jury pursuant to special instruction F, ruling that the instruction was objectionable on the latter two grounds. The trial court's ruling was correct. Special instruction F improperly selected certain evidence and implied the weight to be derived therefrom, thus creating the same type of argumentative instruction disapproved in People v. Wright, supra, 45 Cal.3d at pages 1135-1138. The instruction also was repetitious of the standard cautionary instructions given to the jury in this case (CALJIC Nos. 2.70 and 2.71.7) [24] and therefore properly was refused. (See also People v. Farmer, supra, 47 Cal.3d at p. 913.)