California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Rodriguez, H038219 (Cal. App. 2013):
Moreover, even if defendant had requested an instruction that described the relationship between voluntary intoxication and the mental state for torture murder, the trial court was not required to give such an instruction.1 "A defendant is entitled to such an instruction only when there is substantial evidence of the defendant's voluntary intoxication and the intoxication affected the defendant's 'actual formation of specific intent.' " (People v. Williams (1997) 16 Cal.4th 635, 677.) Here, there was not substantial evidence that defendant was intoxicated as a result of his ingestion of methamphetamine, and there was not substantial evidence that the ingestion of methamphetamine affected defendant's actual formation of specific intent to torture.
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