People v. Boyer CA3

I. BACKGROUND1

An amended information alleged defendant committed murder (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a)) and personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in the commission of the offense (Pen. Code, § 12022, subd. (b)(1)). Defendant pled not guilty. On the morning scheduled to start jury selection, defense counsel informed the court that defendant was contemplating a court trial, rather than a jury trial. The trial court informed defendant “you have the right to a speedy and public jury trial. A jury trial is 12 people from the community, a diverse cross section of the community, and you would have the right to, at both the bench and jury trial, you have the right to cross- examine witnesses and present evidence, and you have the right to remain silent. So you have all of those same rights at both types of trials. At a jury trial, the People, represented by [Assistant District Attorney (ADA)], would have to prove your guilt beyond any reasonable doubt and convince all 12 jurors. So if one juror—if 11 jurors felt that you were guilty, let’s say, of first-degree murder, but one juror did not, then you would not have that. There wouldn’t be a unanimous finding as to first-degree…