California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Mejia, B259843 (Cal. App. 2015):
conduct a substantial evidence review based on all of the evidence, even though the jury did not. If this were not the case, the label we attach to the same errorinstructional versus insufficient evidencecould lead to diametrically opposed outcomes (affirmance in the former if the instructional error is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, but automatic reversal in the latter). Because "the substance, not the form, is what matters" (People v. Superior Court (Pearson) (2010) 48 Cal.4th 564, 573), we conclude that the erroneous instruction does not limit the scope of our substantial evidence analysis.2
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