Is a court's failure to instruct the jury how to assess credibility or how to determine whether defendant's statements were confessions or admissions an error?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Lopez, S073597 (Cal. 2013):

The court's failure to reinstruct the jury regarding how to assess witness credibility or how to determine whether defendant's statements were confessions or admissions is likewise error. (People v. Moon (2005) 37 Cal.4th 1, 37.) In assessing prejudice from the omission of such instructions at the penalty phase, we evaluate " 'the nature of the evidence presented to determine whether it was likely the omitted instructions affected the jury's evaluation of the evidence,' " and where we have found the "evidence presented by both the prosecutor and the

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defendant at the penalty phase" to be "relatively straightforward," we have concluded "defendant was not prejudiced by the omission of the instructions. [Citation.]" (People v. Souza (2012) 54 Cal.4th 90, 134.)

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