Defendant’s Statements Before Trial vs. Testimony at Trial: Clarification of Potentially Misleading Language in CC 358
November 27th, 2018
Jurors could interpret the first and second paragraphs of CC 358 to apply to both statements made by the defendant before trial and to the testimony of the defendant during trial. To clarify this potential ambiguity CC 358 could be modified to provide as follows [added language is bolded]: [Para 1; sentence 1] You […]
Tags: CC 358, Defendant's Out Of Court Statements
Whether Defendant May Be Convicted Based Only on an Admission/Confession
June 15th, 2015
CC 359 is deficient to the extent it lends itself to an interpretation that criminal defendants could be convicted on the basis of extrajudicial statements alone that they committed a crime. (People v. Rivas (2013) 214 Cal. App. 4th 1410.) The first paragraph of CC 359 correctly informed the jury that, “A defendant may […]
Tags: CC 359, Defendant's Out Of Court Statements
Does Implausible or Illogical Testimony Warrant Instructing Per CC 361 on Defendant’s Failure to Explain or Deny Evidence?
March 10th, 2015
In People v. Cortez, S211915 (B233833; nonpublished opinion; (Cal. Sept. 18, 2013) the Supreme Court granted the prosecution’s petition for review to consider, the following issues: In the petition for review the attorney general characterized these issues as follows: 1. May a court instruct the jury with CALCRIM No. 361 on the failure […]
Tags: Beyond A Reasonable Doubt, Burden Of Proof, CC 103, CC 200, CC 361, Defendant's Failure to Explain or Deny Evidence, Defendant's Out Of Court Statements