California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Wiggins, A143183 (Cal. App. 2016):
"The claim-of-right defense provides that a defendant's good faith belief, even if mistakenly held, that he has a right or claim to property he takes from another negates the felonious intent necessary for conviction of theft or robbery." (People v. Tufunga (1999)
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21 Cal.4th 935, 938 (Tufunga).) "A defendant need not show his mistaken claim-of-right was reasonable. An unreasonable belief that he had a legal right to take another's property will suffice so long as he can establish his claim was made in good faith." (People v. Romo (1990) 220 Cal.App.3d 514, 518 (Romo).) " '[A] trial court is not required to instruct on a claim-of-right defense unless there is evidence to support an inference that [the defendant] acted with a subjective belief he or she had a lawful claim on the property.' " (Tufunga, supra, at p. 944.) " ' "In evaluating the evidence to determine whether a requested instruction should be given, the trial court should not measure its substantiality by weighing the credibility [of the witnesses] . . . . Doubts as to the sufficiency of the evidence to warrant instructions should be resolved in favor of the accused." ' " (Ibid.)
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