California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Lopez-Barraza, A138550 (Cal. App. 2017):
Trial courts have a sua sponte duty to instruct on all elements of charged offenses. (Cummings, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 1311.) The People have the burden of proving the truth of a special circumstance allegation beyond a reasonable doubt, and the jury must agree unanimously on whether the People have done so. (See People v. Mil (2012) 53 Cal.4th 400, 409.) Defendant contends the jury received conflicting instructions without clarification as to how to consider them together. We do not agree that the instructions are necessarily conflicting, but conclude that theyparticularly when considered with the jury's verdict formwere so confusing as given that there was a reasonable likelihood that a juror could misinterpret them. Therefore, the court erred.
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