California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from Forrester v. Tahoe, C079107 (Cal. App. 2017):
We disagree that the record shows it was "probable" that the instructional error "prejudicially affected the verdict." (Soule, supra, 8 Cal.4th at p. 580.) As we have discussed, the evidence raised questions of witness credibility, and the jury was also called upon to consider conflicting expert testimony. The jury heard five days of evidence and deliberated for two days. In that circumstance, the jury's two days of deliberation may suggest its "conscientious performance of its civic duty, rather than its difficulty in reaching a decision." (People v. Walker (1995) 31 Cal.App.4th 432, 439 [six and one-half hours of deliberation after two and one-half hours of presentation of evidence].) The jury's request for a definition of "unreasonable" and its request for a
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