Court Opinion

ID: 9622773
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:22:59.453392+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:19.585265
License: Public Domain

*471KAUFMAN, J.
I concur fully in the majority opinion and judgment and write separately only to record an observation about the portion of the concurring and dissenting opinion of Justice Broussard which objects to the majority’s use of the concepts of “reasonable jurors” and “a reasonable jury” in applying the “reasonable, i.e. realistic, possibility” standard of prejudice.
It is quite correct that the question to be determined in assessing prejudice is whether “this jury” may have been misled and that in doing so any indications in the record that “this jury” was actually misled may not be ignored. However, in determining the question of prejudice an appellate court must assume the jury was composed of reasonable persons and that they would react to the evidence and interpret the instructions in a reasonable way. The reason is obvious: otherwise an appellate court could not assess prejudice, for it would have no way of knowing in what idiosyncratic way an unreasonable juror might have been affected by the error or would have interpreted the instruction in question.
Thus, the majority is completely correct in utilizing the concepts of “a reasonable jury” and “reasonable jurors” in applying the unanimously adopted prejudice standard. (See, e.g., Mills v. Maryland (1988) 486 U.S. _, _ [100 L.Ed.2d 384, 394-395, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 1866]; accord, California v. Brown (1987) 479 U.S. 538, 541 [93 L.Ed.2d 934, 940, 107 S.Ct. 837, 839]; see also People v. Kimble (1988) 44 Cal.3d 480, 505, 509, 510 [244 Cal.Rptr. 148, 749 P.2d 803].)
Panelli, J., concurred.