Opinion ID: 702369
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Instruction on Consciousness of Guilt

Text: 46 Turner argues that the trial court erred in giving a particular consciousness of guilt instruction, California Jury Instruction (CALJIC) No. 2.03. In a habeas corpus case, a jury instruction requires reversal only if it so offended established notions of due process as to deprive [the defendant] of a constitutionally fair trial. Cupp v. Naughten, 414 U.S. 141, 144, 94 S.Ct. 396, 399, 38 L.Ed.2d 368 (1974). The court's instruction was as follows: 47 If you find that before this trial the defendant made a willfully false or deliberately misleading statement concerning the crimes for which he is now being tried, you may consider such statement as a circumstance tending to prove a consciousness of guilt. However, such conduct is not sufficient by itself to prove guilt, and its weight and significance, if any, are matters for your determination. 48 CALJIC No. 2.03. 49 In California, this instruction is proper in cases in which there is testimony indicating that before trial the defendant had made several statements, relating to the crime, which were inconsistent with each other. See Green, 609 P.2d at 492 & n. 27; People v. Kane, 150 Cal.App.3d 523, 198 Cal.Rptr. 73, 79 (1984). In the present case, Turner at one point had told the police that he took Hunt's ring from the house during the June 4 burglary, but later stated that Donna Stephens had given it to him four days before that burglary. He also gave different accounts of his activities during that burglary. Thus, the instruction had a proper factual basis under California law. 50 To the extent that Turner argues that the instruction violated his constitutional rights, we have upheld the use of a very similar consciousness of guilt instruction. See United States v. Perkins, 937 F.2d 1397, 1401-02 & n. 2 (9th Cir.1991). So long as the instruction does not state that inconsistent statements constitute evidence of guilt, but merely states that the jury may consider them as indicating a consciousness of guilt, the instruction would not violate constitutional rights. See id. Because CALJIC No. 2.03 fits this requirement, we find no constitutional error.