Opinion ID: 2681345
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Instruction on unjoined perpetrators

Text: The trial court instructed the jurors with the unmodified version of CALJIC No. 2.11.5: ―There has been evidence in this case indicating that a person other than defendant was or may have been involved in the crime for which the defendant is on trial. [¶] There may be many reasons why such person is not here on trial. Therefore, do not discuss or give any consideration to why the other person is not being prosecuted in this trial or whether he has been or will be prosecuted. Your duty is to decide whether the people have proved the guilt of the defendant on trial.‖ Defendant contends that the court‘s failure to modify the instruction to exclude prosecution witness Rollins from its scope constituted error. Assuming that we may review defendant‘s challenge despite his failure to object at trial (§ 1259), we conclude the court‘s instructions as a whole were not erroneous. We agree with defendant that, ideally, the trial court should have modified CALJIC No. 2.11.5 to make clear that it applied only to Jackson and that it did not preclude the jury from taking into consideration, for purposes of evaluating Rollins‘s credibility, the reason that Rollins was not on trial (his having been granted immunity in exchange for his testimony as a prosecution witness). As this court has consistently concluded, however, the failure to modify the standard instruction in these circumstances is not error, because ― ‗ ―[w]hen the instruction is given with the full panoply of witness credibility and accomplice instructions, 37 as it was in this case, [jurors] will understand that although the separate prosecution or nonprosecution of coparticipants, and the reasons therefor, may not be considered on the issue of the charged defendant‘s guilt, a plea bargain or grant of immunity may be considered as evidence of interest or bias in assessing the credibility of prosecution witnesses.‖ ‘ ‖ (People v. Lawley (2002) 27 Cal.4th 102, 162.)