Is failure to give a unanimity instruction a harmless error?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Brown, 42 Cal.App.4th 1493, 50 Cal.Rptr.2d 407 (Cal. App. 1996):
In the same vein, the reviewing court in People v. Schultz (1987) 192 Cal.App.3d 535, 539-540, 237 Cal.Rptr. 513 concluded that a unanimity instruction is unnecessary, and failure to instruct is not error, noting that
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Under similar circumstances other courts have treated failure to give unanimity instructions as harmless error. (People v. Deletto (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 458, 464-474, 195 Cal.Rptr. 233; see also People v. Kaurish (1990) 52 Cal.3d 648, 694-695, 276 Cal.Rptr. 788, 802 P.2d 278.)
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