Is error in failing to instruct a jury in a case of mistaken identity harmless beyond a reasonable doubt?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Ritson, 63 Cal.App.4th 1276, 74 Cal.Rptr.2d 698 (Cal. App. 1998):

However, error in failing so to instruct is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt (Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705, 710-711) if the jury could only have believed that the defendant committed both acts or neither. (People v. Deletto (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 458, 472, 195 Cal.Rptr. 233.)

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