Does a defendant have a right to appeal against a finding of guilty of first degree murder?

^1. The People contend defendant forfeited this argument on appeal because his counsel mentioned first degree murder in his closing argument and also failed to object to the trial court's oral instructions. As noted, defense counsel did not argue there were degrees of attempted murder and limited his discussion of first degree murder to the related issue of forming an intent to kill; we reject the People's first point. As to the assertion defendant did not object to the trial court's erroneous instruction, the People rely on authority holding the failure to seek clarification of an allegedly confusing instruction can lead to forfeiture of instructional error on appeal. (See People v. Souza (2012) 54 Cal.4th 90, 120.) Defendant's contention, however, is the trial court's instruction was incorrect, misleading, and led to a fundamentally unfair trial. Although we reject defendant's argument on the merits, instructional errors affecting a defendant's due process rights not first raised to the trial court are not necessarily forfeited on appeal. (See People v. Partida (2005) 37 Cal.4th 428, 436-439.) We therefore reject the People's assertion this issue was forfeited for appellate review.