Court Opinion

ID: 9529889
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:55:12.432581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:56.885186
License: Public Domain

WERDEGAR, J., Concurring.
Like Justice Brown, I agree with the majority’s general conclusions but believe the instructional question calls for a *1092more specific analysis of the relationship between expert testimony and a claim of reasonable self-defense. For the reasons explained in Justice Brown’s concurring opinion, expert testimony regarding battered woman’s syndrome is not relevant to the objective reasonableness of the defendant’s belief in the need for self-defense unless the defendant’s claim of reasonableness is based upon facts that would not, outside of a battering relationship, tend to show the reasonableness of the defendant’s belief in the need to use deadly force. (Conc. opn. of Brown, J., post, at p. 1098.)
Although not explicitly stated in Justice Brown’s opinion, it follows that in cases not meeting this description—cases, that is, in which the claim of reasonable belief is not dependent on expert testimony as to the nature of a battering relationship—a trial court would not err by giving a limiting instruction of the type suggested in People v. Aris (1989) 215 Cal.App.3d 1178, 1199 [264 Cal.Rptr. 167], and given in the instant case. Nor would a court err in any case by limiting the jury’s use of battered woman’s syndrome (BWS) evidence on the question of reasonableness to that aspect of the expert testimony actually relating to the reasonableness of the defendant’s belief in the need for self-defense.
I part company from Justice Brown insofar as her analysis depends upon Evidence Code section 801. (See conc. opn. of Brown, J., post, at p. 1095.) Evidence Code section 1107 declares BWS evidence admissible, when offered by the defense, upon a foundation of relevance and proper qualification of the expert witness. The Legislature has thus commanded BWS be treated as a proper subject for expert testimony, whether or not it would otherwise meet the generally applicable test of Evidence Code section 801.