When a jury instruction is susceptible to a reading that would render the verdict unconstitutional and another that would generate a proper verdict?

MultiRegion, United States of America

The following excerpt is from Ireland v. Cash, Case No.: 1:11-cv-02116-AWI-JLT (E.D. Cal. 2014):

When a jury instruction is susceptible to a reading that would render the verdict unconstitutional and another that would generate a proper verdict, the reviewing court considers the challenged instruction in light of the full jury charge and in the context of the entire trial. See Naughten, 414 U.S. at 145-147(consider charge as whole); United States v. Park, 421 U.S. 658, 675 (1975)(consider context of whole trial). The court must then decide whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the jury applied the challenged instruction in an unconstitutional manner. Estelle, 502 U.S. at 72. A verdict remains valid if a jury instruction only tangentially undercut a proper beyond-a-reasonable-doubt instruction. Naughten, 414 U.S. at 149-150.

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