Opinion ID: 1176393
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Intentionally Created Necessity.

Text: (29) Defendant also contends it was error, due to the absence of supporting evidence, to give CALJIC No. 5.55, which states that the right to self-defense is not available to one who seeks a quarrel with the intent to create a real or apparent necessity of exercising self-defense. The harm of the instruction, defendant argues, is that it invites the jury to speculate on the existence of a situation which would, if established, justify the rejection of his only defense to the murder charges. Again, we agree that the instruction should not have been given but we are confident the jury was not sidetracked by the correct but irrelevant instruction, which did not figure in the closing arguments, and we conclude that the giving of the instruction was harmless error. (See People v. Rollo (1977) 20 Cal.3d 109, 123 [141 Cal. Rptr. 177, 569 P.2d 771]; Solgaard v. Guy F. Atkinson Co. (1971) 6 Cal.3d 361, 371 [99 Cal. Rptr. 29, 491 P.2d 821].)