California Criminal Jury Instructions
CALCRIM
Volume I
HOMICIDE
Series 700
K. SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
(ii) Special Circumstances

CALCRIM 720.
 

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BENCH NOTES

Instructional Duty

The court has a sua sponte duty to instruct on the elements of the special circumstance. (See People v. Williams (1997) 16 Cal.4th 635, 689 [66 Cal.Rptr.2d 573, 941 P.2d 752].)

The third element should only be given when the defendant is also charged with a robbery-murder special circumstance. (People v. Bigelow (1984) 37 Cal.3d 731, 751 [209 Cal.Rptr. 328, 691 P.2d 994]; People v. Howard (1988) 44 Cal.3d 375, 409 [243 Cal.Rptr. 842, 749 P.2d 279].) When both are charged, there is a risk that the jury will read the financial gain circumstance broadly, causing it to overlap with the robbery-murder special circumstance. (People v. Bigelow, supra, 37 Cal.3d at p. 751.) In such cases, the financial gain special circumstance is subject to “a limiting construction under which

. . . [it] applies only when the victim’s death is the consideration for, or an