California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from The PEOPLE V. LOPEZ, E048027, No. FSB702103 (Cal. App. 2010):
In determining whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury, "'"we must consider the instructions as a whole... [and] assume that the jurors are intelligent persons and capable of understanding and correlating all jury instructions which are given. [Citation.]"' [Citation.] 'Instructions should be interpreted, if possible, so as to support the judgment rather than defeat it if they are reasonably susceptible to such interpretation.' [Citation.]" (People v. Martin, supra, 78 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1111-1112.)
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