Can a jury interpret jury instructions in an improper manner?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Walker, D071097 (Cal. App. 2017):

impermissible manner.' [Citation.] '[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.] 'Moreover, any theoretical possibility of confusion [may be] diminished by the parties' closing arguments. . . .' [Citation.] ' " 'Jurors are presumed to be intelligent, capable of understanding instructions and applying them to the facts of the case.' " ' [Citation.]" (People v. Hajek (2014) 58 Cal.4th 1144, 1220 (Hajek), overruled on another ground as stated in People v. Rangel (2016) 62 Cal.4th 1192, 1216.)

2. Analysis

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