Appellant, William Satele, Reply Brief - California Courts - State of ...

jury wanted to hold each defendant liable for the gun use enhancement is also
specious and amounts to no more than arguing the end justifies the means.
The language ofthe verdict forms mattered. They failed to provide the jury
with the legally available range of verdict options. The language made no
provision for finding any defendant liable for the enhancement as an accomplice
under the proof requirements identified by this court in People v. Garcia, supra,
28 CaI.4th at p. 1174.)
The deficiencies in the language of the verdict forms conformed with the
instructional errors described above and in the opening brief and with the
misdirection in the prosecutor's argument. As a result, the gun use findings are
inherently invalid.
G. Appellant Did Not Forfeit His Constitutional Claims, Including His
Apprendi-Blakely Claim
Respondent contends appellant has forfeited his constitutional claims by a
failure to object below. Respondent is wrong.
Respondent supports its contention with a reference to People v. Thornton
(2007) 41 CaI.4th 391, 462-463. (RB at p. 184.)9 However, Thornton does not
help respondent. In Thornton, this court considered a Batson-Wheeler lO claim in
connection with the selection of an alternate to replace a sitting juror. Although
this court noted the defendant had failed to raise a Batson-Wheeler challenge at
9 Respondent repeats his claim that appellant has forfeited his constitutional
claims with each ofthe briefed issues and relies on Thornton, supra, among other
cases on each occasion. Appellant briefly discusses Thornton here and, in lieu of
repeating his reply to respondent's forfeiture contention, respectfully refers the
reader to appellant's discussion ofthis issue as discussed above at pp. 21-23.)
10 Batson v. Kentucky (1986) 476 U.S. 79 (federal constitutional guaranty of equal
protection of the laws applied to jury selection). People v. Wheeler (1978) 22
CaI.3d 258 (state constitutional right to jury drawn from representative crosssection
ofthe community).
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