CC 207: Proof Need Not Show Actual Date: Exception When Evidence Focuses on One Day to Exclusion of Others
September 5th, 2016

“[W]hen the prosecution’s proof establishes the offense occurred on a particular day to the exclusion of other dates, and when the defense is alibi (or lack of opportunity), [that] it is improper to give the jury an instruction using the ‘on or about’ language.” (People v. Jennings (1991) 53 Cal.3d 334, 358–359; People v. Gavin (1971) 21 Cal.App.3d 408, 416-17; see also, this post “On or About” Instruction Is Improper When The Defense Theory Is Predicated on the Alleged Timing of the Charged Offense.)

This rule was further discussed in People v. Rojas (2015) 237 CA 4th 1298,1304-06, which held that instructing on CC 207 was not error because the jury “expressed no confusion over the ‘on or about’ language in [CC 207], nor was there any evidence of uncharged criminal acts upon which the Count 1 conviction could have mistakenly been based.” [But see post dated Proof Need Not Show Actual Date: Ex Post Facto Violation]


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