California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Montgomery, D068069 (Cal. App. 2015):
'determine whether there is a reasonable likelihood the jury applied the instruction in an impermissible manner.' [Citation.] We presume that jurors are intelligent and capable of correctly understanding, correlating, applying, and following the court's instructions." (People v. Acosta (2014) 226 Cal.App.4th 108, 119) " ' "Instructions should be interpreted, if possible, so as to support the judgment rather than defeat it if they are reasonably susceptible to such interpretation." ' " (People v. Riley (2010) 185 Cal.App.4th 754, 767.)
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