How have the courts interpreted jury instructions in a murder case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Walker, A137905 (Cal. App. 2019):

unlawful killing of a human being . . . (2) committed with malice aforethought. ( 187, subd. (a).) Malice may be express or implied. ( 188.) Malice is implied 'when a killing results from an intentional act, the natural consequences of which are dangerous to human life, and the act is deliberately performed with knowledge of the danger to, and with conscious disregard for, human life.' [Citation.]" (People v. Timms (2007) 151 Cal.App.4th 1292, 1296.)

With respect to the instructions, the following rules apply. "Review of the adequacy of instructions is based on whether the trial court 'fully and fairly instructed on the applicable law.' [Citation.] ' "In determining whether error has been committed in giving or not giving jury instructions, we must consider the instructions as a whole . . . [and] assume that the jurors are intelligent persons and capable of understanding and correlating all jury instructions which are given." [Citation.]' [Citation.] 'Instructions should be interpreted, if possible, so as to support the judgment rather than defeat it if they are reasonably susceptible to such interpretation.' [Citation.]" (People v. Ramos (2008) 163 Cal.App.4th 1082, 1088.)

With these legal principles in mind, we return to defendants' arguments.

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