Court Opinion

ID: 9725583
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:54:52.626578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:16.817201
License: Public Domain

FRANSON, J.
I concur in the foregoing opinion. I do so reluctantly because it is clear to me that defendant must have known that he was involved in the accident; the fact that he failed to stop at the scene shows a consciousness of guilt.
Nonetheless, the defense evidence showed that when defendant was one to two blocks from the scene of the accident he observed the police car and slowed down to stop. Under the instructions given by the court, the jury could have concluded that defendant was guilty of the charge of felony hit-and-run driving because he knew that an accident had occurred but without specifically finding that he knew that his conduct was a cause of the accident. The fact that the jury acquitted defendant of the charges of engaging in a speed contest and exhibition of speeding lends strong support to the possibility that the jury failed to make the requisite finding of defendant’s awareness of his involvement in the accident. In fact, it is difficult to see how the jury concluded that the defendant was involved in the accident in the light of his acquittal of the other charges.
The dissent assumes that the jury inferred the knowledge requirement from the instructions “as a whole.” The assumption falls in the face of the explicitly incorrect instruction of the meaning of the term “knowingly” contained in CALJIC No. 12.70. Where a specific instruction on an essential element of a crime is incorrect, the error cannot be cured by other generally correct instructions. (People v. Westlake (1899) 124 Cal. 452, 457 [57 P. 465]; see People v. Valencia (1872) 43 Cal. 552, 555-556; 18 Cal.Jur.3d (1975) Criminal Law, § 873, pp. 584-585.)
A defendant has a constitutional right to have the jury determine every material issue presented by the evidence. The failure to correctly instruct on such an issue cannot be cured by the presence of overwhelming evidence of guilt. (People v. Stewart (1976) 16 Cal.3d 133, 141 [127 Cal.Rptr. 117, 544 P.2d 1317]; People v. Mayberry (1975) 15 Cal.3d 143, 157 [125 Cal.Rptr. 745, 542 P.2d 1337]; People v. Sedeno (1974) 10 Cal.3d 703, 720 [112 Cal.Rptr. 1, 518 P.2d 913]; People v. Modesto (1963) 59 Cal.2d 722, 730 [31 Cal.Rptr. 225, 382 P.2d 33].)
We have no alternative but to reverse.