Can a jury be confused about whether a defendant can be guilty of dissuading a witness by force or threat?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Boyd, B240590 (Cal. App. 2013):

No jury hearing these two instructions read aloud by the court, one right after the other, reasonably could be confused about whether defendant could be guilty of dissuading a witness by force or threat if they found defendant did use force or threats but did not intend to discourage the victims from causing an arrest and/or prosecution. Nor would any reasonable jury reading the printed form of the instructions in the jury room be confused on this point. Defendant's argument would have us slice and dice the instructions as if each one were heard and understood in isolation. Defendant ignores that the court instructed the jury to "[p]ay careful attention to all of these instructions and consider them together." (People v. Musselwhite (1998) 17 Cal.4th 1216, 1248 ("'"[T]he correctness of jury instructions is to be determined from the entire charge of the court, not from a consideration of parts of an instruction or from a particular instruction."' [Citation.]")

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