Opinion ID: 2613228
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Failure to Instruct Sua Sponte on Use of Other Crimes Evidence

Text: (25) Defendant contends the court erred in failing to instruct sua sponte (based on CALJIC No. 2.50) that the penalty phase jury should not use the inference of criminal propensity drawn from proof of one incident of unadjudicated conduct as proof of the truth of the allegations of another such incident. (See People v. Thompson (1980) 27 Cal.3d 303, 317 [165 Cal. Rptr. 289, 611 P.2d 883]; Evid. Code, § 1101, subd. (a).) We disagree. Generally, the court owes no obligation to instruct on the limited purposes for which evidence of prior crimes is admissible. (See People v. Collie (1981) 30 Cal.3d 43, 64 [177 Cal. Rptr. 458, 634 P.2d 534, 23 A.L.R.4th 776].) Defendant acknowledges the general rule, but argues that it should be inapplicable at the penalty phase of a capital case. In light of the instructions that were given here, we fail to discern a need for such a sua sponte instruction. In the present case, the jury was told that (1) evidence of various specified criminal acts had been presented, (2) before the jury could use evidence of any such offense as an aggravating circumstance, it must find beyond a reasonable doubt that such offense occurred, and (3) except for such offenses, the jury may not consider any evidence of any other criminal acts as an aggravating circumstance. We think the foregoing instructions sufficed to inform the jury of its responsibility to differentiate between the various offenses. Under these instructions, no reasonable juror would have concluded that proof of one offense could assist in proving another offense beyond a reasonable doubt. We also reject defendant's related contention that counsel's failure to request a limiting instruction on the prior offenses reflected his incompetence. As previously indicated, counsel may have deemed it tactically unwise to call further attention to defendant's prior offenses by requesting special instructions. (See People v. Phillips, supra, 41 Cal.3d at p. 73, fn. 25; cf. People v. Pensinger, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 1267.)