Tag Archives: Evidence and Witnesses


Credibility: Child Molestation
April 17th, 2015

  People v. Fernandez ( 2013) 216 Cal. App. 4th 540, upheld CC 330 over a challenge that the instruction unfairly bolstered a child molestation victim’s credibility and impaired the defense’s ability to impeach her credibility based on her inability to perceive, understand, remember, and communicate. Relying on cases that had upheld CJ 2.20.1, the […]


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Witness Credibility Factors: Sua Sponte Duty to Delete Inapplicable Factors
April 13th, 2015

  The court has a sua sponte duty to give an instruction on factors relevant to a witness’s credibility. However, not all of the factors will apply in each case. Therefore, the court should strike those factors inapplicable in a case. Failure to do so may cause jurors to speculate about what evidence was not […]


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Witness Credibility: Relevance Of Inadvertent Mistake
May 10th, 2014

  Defense counsel have tried to have courts modify this instruction to have the last paragraph read: “If you decide that a witness deliberately lied or inaccurately testified about something significant in this case. . .or, if you think the witness lied or inaccurately testified about some things. . ..” However, this modification has been […]


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Prior Statement of Witness Who Claims to Not Remember
April 30th, 2014

  A witness who claims to “no longer remember a certain event” may be confronted with the witness’s prior statements in which case, a CC 318 instruction would be warranted. (See People v. Solorzano (2007) 153 Cal. App. 4th 1026; People v. Hudson (2009) 175 Cal. App. 4th 1025.)


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Direct And Circumstantial Evidence
April 30th, 2014

            The California Supreme Court, People v. Livingston (2012) 53 Cal. 4th 1145, and Courts of Appeal, People v. Golde (2008) 163 Cal. App. 4th 101; People v. Ibarra (2007) 156 Cal. App. 4th 1174; People v. Anderson (2007) 152 Cal. App. 4th 919, have upheld the use of CC […]


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Testimony Of Child 10 Years Of Age Or Younger
April 20th, 2014

  CC 330 parallels CJ 2.20.1 and the constitutionality of that instruction has been upheld by the courts. (People v. McCoy (2005) 133 Cal. App. 4th 974.)


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In-Custody Informant
March 30th, 2014

  If the witness is an in-custody informant, CC 336 should be given upon request, as well as CC 337, which cautions jurors not to consider the reason the witness is in custody. Regarding CC 337, the Court of Appeal has held this instruction should not be given unless the shackles are visible to the […]


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Instructing on Character Versus Honesty
March 20th, 2014

  In revising CC 350 in August of 2012, the CC Committee stated that “A judge noticed that the instructions for filling in the blanks for “insert character trait” in [CC 350], Character of Defendant, could pose a problem if the trait in question were honesty. Character evidence must be relevant to the charged offenses, […]


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Failure To Explain Or Deny Evidence
March 10th, 2014

  This instruction is similar to CJ 2.62 and has been upheld by the courts. (People v. Rodriguez (2009)179 Cal. App. 4th 1062.)


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