California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Carpio, B261698 (Cal. App. 2016):
offense to murder, and (2) it read CALJIC No. 5.31, which misled the jury into believing that imperfect self-defense was unavailable if either brother escalated the fistfight into a fight with a dangerous or deadly weapon. We independently review the trial court's jury instructions. (People v. Jimenez (2016) 246 Cal.App.4th 726, 731.)
As part of its duty to instruct the jury on generally applicable principles of law, a trial court may be required on its own to instruct the jury not only on the charged offenses, but also any lesser offenses that are necessarily included in each charged offense. (People v. Breverman (1998) 19 Cal.4th 142, 154-155 (Breverman).)
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