California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. White, C081700 (Cal. App. 2017):
The jury was instructed that it must find "defendant willfully inflicted unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering on a child." On the facts, the jury could not have found infliction of physical pain. Thus, it must have found defendant willfully inflicted mental suffering on the child. That finding necessarily entails a finding defendant knew the child was in the room when he willfully inflicted mental suffering on him. Accordingly, any error in instructing did not contribute to the verdict. (See People v. Merritt (2017) 2 Cal.5th 819, 825.)
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