Court Opinion

ID: 9545640
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:16:35.075519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:15.599100
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
specially concurring:
I agree with the Colorado Court of Appeals that any error in Instruction No. 12 did not constitute plain error and does not require reversal of the defendant’s judgment of conviction. See People v. Zapata, 759 P.2d 754, 755-56 (Colo.App.1988). I agree as well with the majority opinion that when error is invited it need not be scrutinized with even the limited rigor appropriate to plain error analysis to determine whether the error requires reversal. The majority opinion, however, can be read to suggest that invited error is never reversible. I cannot go that far. The circumstances under which invited error can arise, including the extent of participation by the defendant in “issuing the invitation,” are so many and varied, and the potential consequences of such an error for a miscarriage of justice are so severe, that we would be best advised to address the issue of whether invited error requires reversal on a case by case basis. I therefore concur in the result reached by the majority but not in all that is said in arriving at that result.