Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jury Instructed on Inapplicable Factors

Text: Defendant contends the jurors should not have been instructed on the factors listed in section 190.3 that were not applicable to the present case. We have rejected this contention. ( People v. Miranda (1987) 44 Cal.3d 57, 104-105 [241 Cal. Rptr. 594, 744 P.2d 1127].) (45) Defendant also maintains that in his closing argument the prosecutor improperly encouraged jurors to consider the absence of mitigating factors, thereby committing the error identified in People v. Davenport, supra, 41 Cal.3d 247, 289-290. The record is otherwise: the prosecutor merely argued that various statutory mitigating factors were not applicable to defendant. This form of argument is not misconduct. ( People v. Burton (1989) 48 Cal.3d 843, 864 [258 Cal. Rptr. 184, 771 P.2d 1270].) Since the crux of the jury's decision is the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors, a prosecutor may properly comment on the absence of mitigating factors so long as the prosecutor refrains from suggesting that absence of mitigation is to be equated with aggravation. Here the prosecutor did not cross this line.