Court Opinion

ID: 9722252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:22:20.297459+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:33.157889
License: Public Domain

TROTTER, P. J.
I respectfully dissent. I am not willing to accept the premise of the majority that a single witness identification absent a GuzmanTelfaire instruction is reversible error. Nor am I willing, since it is not our role, to reweigh the evidence; which must be done to achieve the result of my colleagues. Here instructions CALJIC Nos. 2.90 and 2.91 were given. While not so exhaustive or detailed as the Telfaire instruction they adequately informed the jury of defendant’s presumption of innocence and the People’s burden of proving the defendant’s identity by eyewitness testimony.
Further, CALJIC No. 2.20 and 2.221 discussed what factors the jury should consider in evaluating the testimony of the victim/witness. The in*673structions given clearly identified the main issue: the identity of the defendant. The victim/witness described the defendant in detail to the police; she identified him in two separate lineups and heard his voice. There was no suggestion the identification process was suggestive or in any way improper. The alibi testimony was equivocal at best and disclosed defendant spent the night within one block of the robbery scene on a Thursday close to the date of the crime. The jury heard the cross-examination by defendant’s counsel and his argument as to the reliability of the identification.
Any error resulting from failure to give more detailed instructions on the issue of identification most certainly is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. There was substantial evidence identifying the defendant and the jury was adequately instructed on the matter.
Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied April 25, 1984.

CALJIC No. 2.20 as read to the jury provides: “Every person who testifies under oath is a witness. You are the sole judges of the believability of a witness and the weight to be given the testimony of each witness. In determining the believability of a witness you may consider anything that has a tendency in reason to prove or disprove the truthfulness of the testimony of the witness, including but not limited to any of the following: the extent of the opportunity or ability of the witness to see or hear or otherwise become aware of any matter about which the witness has testified; the ability of the witness to remember or to commu*673nicate any matter about which the witness has testified; the character and quality of that testimony; the demeanor and manner of the witness while testifying; the existence or nonexistence of a bias, interest, or other motive; evidence of the existence or nonexistence of any fact testified to by the witness; the attitude of the witness toward the action in which testimony has been given by the witness or toward the giving of testimony; a statement previously made by the witness that is consistent or inconsistent with the testimony of the witness.”
CALJIC No. 2.22 provides: “You are not bound to decide in conformity with the testimony of a number of witnesses, which does not produce conviction in your mind, as against the testimony of a lesser number or other evidence, which appeals to your mind with more convincing force. This does not mean that you are at liberty to disregard the testimony of the greater number of witnesses merely from caprice or prejudice, or from a desire to favor one side as against the other. It does mean that you are not to decide an issue by the simple process of counting the number of witnesses who have testified on the opposing sides. It means that the final test is not in the relative number of witnesses, but in the relative convincing force of the evidence. ”