Section 2720 | CALCRIM (Jury Instructions)

[AND

The defendant did not act (in self-defense/ [or] in defense of
someone else).]
Someone commits an act willfully when he or she does it willingly or on
purpose.
[The terms application of force and apply force mean to touch in a
harmful or offensive manner. The slightest touching can be enough if it
is done in a rude or angry way. Making contact with another person,
including through his or her clothing, is enough. The touching does not
have to cause pain or injury of any kind.]
[The touching can be done indirectly by causing an object [or someone
else] to touch the other person.]
[The People are not required to prove that the defendant actually
touched someone.]
No one needs to actually have been injured by defendant’s act. But if
someone was injured, you may consider that fact, along with all the
other evidence, in deciding whether the defendant committed an assault[,
and if so, what kind of assault it was].
[A deadly weapon is any object, instrument, or weapon [that is inherently
deadly or dangerous or one] that is used in such a way that it is capable
of causing and likely to cause death or great bodily injury.]
[An object is inherently deadly if it is deadly or dangerous in the
ordinary use for which it was designed.]
[In deciding whether an object is a deadly weapon, consider all the
surrounding circumstances.]
[Great bodily injury means significant or substantial physical injury. It is
an injury that is greater than minor or moderate harm.]
[The term (great bodily injury/deadly weapon) is defined in another
instruction.]
There are two kinds of malice aforethought, express malice and implied
malice. Proof of either is sufficient to establish the state of mind required
for this crime.
The defendant acted with express malice if (he/she) unlawfully intended
to kill the person assaulted.
The defendant acted with implied malice if:
1. (He/She) intentionally committed an act.
2. The natural and probable consequences of the act were
dangerous to human life.
CALCRIM No. 2720
CRIMES AGAINST GOVERNMENT
606

3. At the time (he/she) acted, (he/she) knew (his/her) act was
dangerous to human life.
AND
4. (He/She) deliberately acted with conscious disregard for human
life.
Malice aforethought does not require hatred or ill will toward the victim.
It is a mental state that must be formed before the act is committed. It
does not require deliberation or the passage of any particular period of
time.
[A person is sentenced to a term in a state prison if he or she is
(sentenced to confinement in
<insert name of institution from
Pen. Code, § 5003>/committed to the Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation[, Division of Juvenile Justice,]) by an order made
according to law[, regardless of both the purpose of the (confinement/
commitment) and the validity of the order directing the (confinement/
commitment), until a judgment of a competent court setting aside the
order becomes final]. [A person may be sentenced to a term in a state
prison even if, at the time of