California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Silver, C076715 (Cal. App. 2016):
As noted previously, defendant moved for acquittal under Penal Code section 1118.1. This statute, however, only applies to cases "tried before a jury." (Pen. Code, 1118.1.) Here, defendant waived her right to a jury trial and the case was tried by the court without a jury. Accordingly, the relevant statute is Penal Code section 1118, which applies to cases "tried by the court without a jury" when a jury trial has been waived, and requires the court to "order the entry of a judgment of acquittal of one or more of the offenses charged in the accusatory pleading after the evidence of the prosecution has been closed if the court, upon weighing the evidence then before it, finds the defendant not guilty of such offense or offenses." (Pen. Code, 1118.) We apply the same analysis in reviewing a motion for acquittal under either statute. (See People v. Ceja (1988) 205 Cal.App.3d 1296, 1301, abrogated on another ground in People v. Norris (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 475, 479.) And that standard is " 'the same as the standard applied by an appellate court in reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction, that is, "whether from the evidence, including all reasonable inferences to be drawn
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therefrom, there is any substantial evidence of the existence of each element of the offense charged." ' [Citation.]" (People v. Stevens (2007) 41 Cal.4th 182, 200.)
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