California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Guillory v. Superior Court, 1 Cal.Rptr.3d 879, 31 Cal.4th 168, 72 P.3d 815 (Cal. 2003):
Petitioner further argues that she is entitled to benefit from any reasonable doubt, or application of the rule of lenity, in the construction of section 602(b). "[T]he rule of lenity compels courts to resolve true statutory ambiguities in a defendant's favor, but this rule applies only if two reasonable interpretations of the statute stand in relative equipoise." (People v. Anderson (2002) 28 Cal.4th 767, 780, 122 Cal.Rptr.2d 587, 50 P.3d 368.) That is not the case here.
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