California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Winslow, 19 Cal.App.4th 1775, 24 Cal.Rptr.2d 327 (Cal. App. 1993):
[19 Cal.App.4th 855] "The trial court must instruct even without request on the general principles of law relevant to and governing the case. [Citation.] That obligation includes instructions on all elements of a charged offense. [Citation.]" (People v. Cummings (1993) 4 Cal.4th 1233, 1312, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 796, 850 P.2d 1.) These rules apply to the "elements" of an "enhancement." 7 Contrary to respondent's request, we cannot "save" this judgment on a harmless error analysis.
The cases do not suggest "... that a harmless error analysis may be applied to instructional error which withdraws from jury consideration substantially all of the elements of an offense...." (People v. Cummings, supra, 4 Cal.4th at p. 1315, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 796, 850 P.2d 1.) This rule applies to "enhancements." Here the instructional error withdrew from jury considerations substantially all of the elements of the enhancements. The sole instruction given ( ante, p. 331, fn. 5) was, in essence, only a re-reading of the information. This was tantamount to a complete
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