Is a jury allowed to award a life imprisonment without parole sentence in a murder case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Taylor, 113 Cal.Rptr.2d 827, 26 Cal.4th 1155, 34 P.3d 937 (Cal. 2001):

Defendant faults the sentencing instructions (CALJIC No. 8.88) for failing to direct the jury to impose a life imprisonment without parole sentence if it concluded the mitigating circumstances outweighed the aggravating ones. We have repeatedly rejected the claim in light of other language in this instruction, allowing a death verdict only if aggravating circumstances outweighed mitigating ones. (See People v. Jackson (1996) 13 Cal.4th 1164, 1243, 56 Cal.Rptr.2d 49, 920 P.2d 1254; People v. Duncan (1991) 53 Cal.3d 955, 978, 281 Cal.Rptr. 273, 810 P.2d 131.)

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