Opinion ID: 2575291
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Requested defense instructions

Text: Defendant contends the trial court's denial of certain instructions he requested violated his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Defendant requested the following instruction: If you find that a witness has testified falsely, this fact may afford an inference that the witness is concealing the truth, but it does not, by itself, warrant an inference that the truth is the direct opposite of the rejected testimony. This instruction was properly rejected as argumentative and duplicative of other given instructions. [29] ( People v. Gurule (2002) 28 Cal.4th 557, 659 [123 Cal.Rptr.2d 345, 51 P.3d 224] ( Gurule ).) Defendant requested a modified instruction concerning reasonable doubt. We have cautioned against trial court experimentation with this instruction, and as noted earlier, we have upheld the validity of the instruction given by the court. ( Freeman, supra, 8 Cal.4th at p. 504.) Defendant's proposed instruction was duplicative of instructions that were given, and thus was properly refused. ( Gurule, supra, 28 Cal.4th at p. 659.) Defendant also requested an instruction providing: An abiding conviction is a belief with staying power. Even absolute positivism, if it wanes after some undetermined and undeterminable time, is insufficient. Therefore, not just any kind of conviction will dispel a reasonable doubt, it must be the abiding kind only. We previously have held that this language is not required. ( People v. Turner (1994) 8 Cal.4th 137, 203 [32 Cal.Rptr.2d 762, 878 P.2d 521] ( Turner ), overruled on other grounds in People v. Griffin (2004) 33 Cal.4th 536, 555, fn. 5 [15 Cal.Rptr.3d 743, 93 P.3d 344].) Defendant requested additional instructions defining deliberate and premeditate, and three instructions that elaborated on the concept of premeditation. The jury was instructed in the language of CALJIC No. 8.20. That was sufficient. ( People v. Moon (2005) 37 Cal.4th 1, 31-32 [32 Cal.Rptr.3d 894, 117 P.3d 591]; Gurule, supra, 28 Cal.4th at p. 659.)