CA · jury_instructions
CALCRIM No. 704
Special Circumstances: Circumstantial
Evidence—Sufficiency
Before you may rely on circumstantial evidence to conclude that a
special circumstance allegation is true, you must be convinced that the
People have proved each fact essential to that conclusion beyond a
reasonable doubt.
Also, before you may rely on circumstantial evidence to find that a
special circumstance allegation is true, you must be convinced that the
only reasonable conclusion supported by the circumstantial evidence is
that the special circumstance allegation is true. If you can draw two or
more reasonable conclusions from the circumstantial evidence, and one
of those reasonable conclusions supports a finding that the special
circumstance allegation is true and another reasonable conclusion
supports a finding that it is not true, you must conclude that the
allegation was not proved by the circumstantial evidence. However, when
considering circumstantial evidence, you must accept only reasonable
conclusions and reject any that are unreasonable.
New January 2006
Provenance
- Source
- courts.ca.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-20
- Edition
- calcrim-2020
- Content hash
09b3772bc21ea4a991f5fd7c58bd9fa13b14844fa336dd9ae361218fcf190928
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