Error and/or relief
[Gary note: not a win, really, but it contains useful language. The trial court committed instructional error, but it was found to be harmless.] Although harmless error, the trial court erred in instructing the jury on the legally invalid theory that a pocketknife could be an inherently deadly weapon.First Holding:
The evidence did not support instructing the jury on inherently deadly weapons because a knife is not inherently deadly as a matter of law. Only a few items that are designed to be used as deadly weapons are inherently deadly. The court should not have given the instruction because, as with most weapons, the knife was not, as a matter of law, inherently deadly and inclusion of an instruction on inherently deadly weapons was unnecessary.
Authority:
People v. Aledamat (2019) 8 Cal.5th 1
Second Holding:
Though the court erred when it instructed the jury that it could find the pocketknife an inherently dangerous weapon, this factual error was harmless because the record does not affirmatively demonstrate a reasonable probability that the jury found the defendant guilty solely on the unsupported theory.
Authority:
People v. Rivera (2019) 7 Cal.5th 306, 329