California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Cady, 212 Cal.Rptr.3d 319, 7 Cal.App.5th 134 (Cal. App. 2016):
4 Cady points out that based on the trial court's statements when discussing jury instructions, the trial court may not have relied upon defense counsel's deliberate choice to forego the instruction on the lesser included offense as a ground for deciding not to give the instruction, as it stated that it agreed with defense counsel that the evidence did not support such an instruction. Cady argues that when the trial court gives an independent reason for its decision to forego the instruction rather than relying on defense counsel's request, the doctrine of invited error does not apply. The People respond that "the invited error doctrine analysis is contingent on whether the record makes clear that appellant deliberately invited the error, not on the extent to which the court's decision was based on appellant's invitation." We agree with the People. The purpose of the invited error doctrine is to prevent a defendant from asserting on appeal that a trial court decision for which he advocated below is error and therefore a basis for reversal. (People v. Coffman and Marlow (2004) 34 Cal.4th 1, 49, 17 Cal.Rptr.3d 710, 96 P.3d 30 [" The doctrine of invited error is designed to prevent an accused from gaining a reversal on appeal because of an error made by the trial court at his behest. "].) Therefore, the crucial inquiry is whether defendant advocated for the erroneous ruling, not whether the trial court's error was caused by that advocacy.
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