California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Salazar, C055689 (Cal. App. 7/27/2009), C055689 (Cal. App. 2009):
Second, defendant asserts that we have discretion to decide the issue even though there was no objection in the trial court, and urges us to so exercise it. We decline the invitation for reasons stated in People v. Romero (2008) 44 Cal.4th 386: "`"[A]s a general rule, `the failure to object to errors committed at trial relieves the reviewing court of the obligation to consider those errors on appeal.' [Citations.] This applies to claims based on statutory violations, as well as claims based on violations of fundamental constitutional rights. [Citations.]"' [Citation.] The reason for this rule is to allow errors to be corrected by the trial court and to prevent gamesmanship by the defense. [Citations.] We see no reason why the general rule of forfeiture should not be applied to . . . claims of error relating to interpreters for [] witnesses. Here, each of the claimed violations of defendant's rights could easily have been addressed and corrected in the trial court had defendant objected. His failure to do so precludes him from now asserting errors relating to the witness interpreter[]." (Id. at p. 411.)
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