California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Haralson, G054546 (Cal. App. 2019):
Although appellants did not ask the trial court to instruct the jury on contributing to the delinquency of a minor, "California law has long provided that even absent a request . . . a trial court must instruct a criminal jury on any lesser offense 'necessarily included' in the charged offense, if there is substantial evidence that only the lesser crime was committed." (People v. Birks (1998) 19 Cal.4th 108, 112.) "[A] lesser offense is necessarily included in a greater offense if either the statutory elements of the greater offense, or the facts actually alleged in the accusatory pleading, include all the elements of the lesser offense, such that the greater cannot be committed without also committing the lesser." (Id. at p. 117.)
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