Griffin

Defendant Bryant D. Griffin was convicted by a jury of five counts of child molestation and one count of forcible rape. He argued on appeal that his forcible rape conviction must be reversed because the trial court erred in failing to instruct sua sponte on the special legal definition of “force” required for conviction of that offense. He further contended the evidence would have been insufficient as a matter of law to sustain his conviction of forcible rape under that standard.

A majority of the Court of Appeal agreed, concluding that the definition of “force,” as it is used in the forcible rape statute (Pen. Code, § 261, subd. (a)(2)), has a specialized legal meaning that would not be known to the average lay juror. The court placed principal reliance on People v. Cicero (1984) 157 Cal.App.3d 465 [ 204 Cal.Rptr. 582 ] (Cicero), the case that first articulated a specialized legal definition of the element of force required for conviction of lewd acts by force on a child under the age of 14. (§ 288, subd. (b)(1).) Cicero held that conviction of forcible lewd acts on a minor requires evidence of “physical force substantially different from or substantially greater than…