Is there any case law in which a jury has been instructed to view the testimony of both defendants at trial and not to rely solely on their own testimony?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Rendon, G054006 (Cal. App. 2018):

An argument similar to Rendon's was rejected by the court in People v. Johnson (2016) 243 Cal.App.4th 1247, 1251, in which two defendants were tried together for murder and attempted murder, and both testified at trial. One of the arguments on appeal was whether "CALCRIM No. 335 undermined their defenses by directing the jury to view their testimony with caution, and as requiring independent corroboration, without clarifying that this applied only to incriminating testimony given by each defendant against the other and not to exculpatory testimony by either defendant in support of his own defense." (Id. at p. 1273.) Because none of the testimony by either of the defendants was both incriminating and self-exculpatory, there was no error in the instruction.4 "The essence of each defendant's defense was that he did not intend to

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