California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Guiton, 17 Cal.Rptr.2d 365, 4 Cal.4th 1116, 847 P.2d 45 (Cal. 1993):
We must therefore analyze the applicable standard of review. It is error to give an instruction which, while correctly stating a principle of law, has no application to the facts of the case. (People v. Eggers (1947) 30 Cal.2d 676, 687, 185 P.2d 1.) If, as in this case, that is the only error, it does not appear to be of federal constitutional dimension. The court in Griffin, supra, 502 U.S. at p. ----, 112 S.Ct. at p. 474, while stating that "it would generally be preferable" to remove [4 Cal.4th 1130] an unsupported theory from the jury's consideration, does not suggest that the failure to do so would violate the federal Constitution.
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