Opinion ID: 1309215
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Response to Jury's Inquiries

Text: (34a) Defendant asserts that the trial court inadequately responded to various inquiries from the jury during its deliberations. We find no error was committed. The jury inquired whether there [is] any way our verdict could be changed if we gave life imprisonment without possibility of parole  our concern is that [defendant] would be paroled in later years. The jury also asked how many persons sentenced to life without parole subsequently have been paroled. Finally, the jury inquired, Does the death penalty automatically go to appeal? In response to all these inquiries, the trial court, with the concurrence of both counsel, responded that You must not speculate or consider matters not presented by way of legal evidence. Rather, you must follow the law as the court gave it to you and make the decisions following that law in accordance with the facts as you determine them to be from the evidence. [¶] Your responsibility is to reach a verdict to the best of your own ability following that procedure. You must do that without speculation concerning questions or matters outside of that which has been presented to you here in court as law or evidence. We think the trial court's noncommittal response was sufficient, requiring the jury to follow the court's instructions and weigh the evidence without speculating on extraneous matters. In People v. Ramos, supra, 37 Cal.3d at page 159, footnote 12, we considered a similar question arising in the context of the 1978 death penalty law, stating that when the jury itself raises the commutation issue during deliberations, the matter obviously cannot be avoided and is probably best handled by a short statement indicating that the Governor's commutation power applies to both sentences [life without parole and death] but emphasizing that it would be a violation of the juror's duty to consider the possibility of such commutation in determining the appropriate sentence. (Cf. People v. Morse [1964] 60 Cal.2d 631, 648 [36 Cal. Rptr. 201, 388 P.2d 33, 12 A.L.R.3d 810].) In the present case, of course, the trial court did not have the benefit of Ramos 's admonition, but nonetheless sufficiently anticipated our concern that the jury be admonished not to speculate regarding the possibility of commutation. We see no likelihood of prejudice from the fact that the trial court failed to give the further explanation that the Governor's commutation power would apply to both a life without parole sentence and a death sentence. Similarly, we find the trial court's reply an adequate response to the jury's inquiry regarding automatic appeals. (35) As a general rule, the jury should not be advised regarding the availability of an appeal in death cases, because such information may dilute the jury's sense of responsibility in fixing the penalty. (See People v. Morse, supra, 60 Cal.2d at pp. 649-651; People v. Linden (1959) 52 Cal.2d 1, 27 [338 P.2d 397].) (34b) Yet it would be inaccurate and misleading to advise the jury, upon inquiry, that a death judgment was final and unreviewable. The trial court's response, quoted above, was a satisfactory way of redirecting the jury's attention to its proper sentencing responsibilities without misinforming them regarding the availability of an appeal.