California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Rich, B253180 (Cal. App. 2015):
If the trial court fails to instruct the jury on the elements of a prison prior enhancement, "[t]he question then becomes whether the inadequacy of the instructions concerning these priors resulted in a miscarriage of justice, i.e., whether [the defendant] suffered prejudice with respect to the increased punishment for the priors." (People v. Winslow (1995) 40 Cal.App.4th 680, 688 (Winslow).) A harmless error standard applies to wrongly omitted instructions dealing with enhancements. (Ibid. [no prejudice because sentence on the prior prison term enhancements was stayed, so "[t]he jury's determination that he suffered these prior prison terms does not result in any adverse consequences"].)
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