Is a jury's failure to give an instruction in a motor vehicle accident case harmless beyond a reasonable doubt?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Strong, 30 Cal.App.4th 366, 35 Cal.Rptr.2d 494 (Cal. App. 1994):

Any error in the trial court's failure to give such an instruction, however, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (See Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18, 24 [87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705]; People v. Wader (1993) 5 Cal.4th 610, 642, 20 Cal.Rptr.2d 788, 854 P.2d 80 [harmlessness of an instructional error is measured under Chapman standard].) Defendant was indisputably driving the pickup when he was arrested. Moreover, no reasonable juror could have found that at the time, defendant was still engaged in the original taking. Thus, even if the jury had been properly instructed, it could and would have entered the same verdict.

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