California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Moser, F076073 (Cal. App. 2019):
Furthermore, even assuming, arguendo, it was error not to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter, defendant was not prejudiced. By convicting defendant of second degree murder instead of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter, the jury found that defendant acted with malice, necessarily rejecting the view that the killing was manslaughter. Also, in rendering a conviction for second degree murder, the jury implicitly rejected defendant's version of the events and defenses, including that he acted in self-defense, imperfect self-defense, or in the heat of passion, which would have resulted in his acquittal or reduced his conviction to voluntary manslaughter. Because the jury resolved these factual findings requisite to involuntary manslaughter against defendant, he cannot have been prejudiced by the lack of an instruction on involuntary manslaughter. Thus, any alleged error was harmless. (See People v. Lewis (2001) 25 Cal.4th 610, 646 ["Error in failing to instruct the jury on a lesser included offense is harmless when the jury necessarily decides the factual questions posed by the omitted instructions adversely to defendant under other properly given instructions"].)
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