Is a defendant's Special Instruction No. 3 required to inform the jury that it is free to select a sentence of life without parole even if the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Monterroso, 101 P.3d 956, 22 Cal.Rptr.3d 1, 34 Cal.4th 743 (Cal. 2004):

The trial court refused to give defendant's Special Instruction No. 3, which would have informed the jury that it was free to select a sentence of life without the possibility of parole even if the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors. No such instruction is required. (People v. Lenart (2004) 32 Cal.4th 1107, 1135, 12 Cal.Rptr.3d 592, 88 P.3d 498.) Moreover, the instruction was duplicative; other instructions stated that, in order to impose a sentence of death, the jurors must find not only that the aggravating circumstances outweighed the mitigating circumstances, but also that "you personally believe death is the appropriate sentence under all the circumstances."

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