(Download) "Griego V. People" by Colorado Supreme Court " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Griego V. People
- Author : Colorado Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 20, 2001
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 60 KB
Description
In this appeal we hold that the offense of driving after revocation prohibited1includes the material element of "knowingly" as the culpable mental state of this crime and that jury instructions should include the definition of "knowingly" as defined in section 18-1-501(6), 6 C.R.S. (2000). The court of appeals in People v. Griego, 983 P.2d 99 (Colo. App. 1998) held that the trial court's failure to define the culpable mental state of "knowingly" in its jury instructions was not error and affirmed Griego's conviction. We disagree with this reasoning. We hold that the jury should be instructed that the culpable mental state of this crime is knowingly and that the failure to so instruct constitutes constitutional error. However, because we follow the recent holding of the United States Supreme Court in Neder v. United States, 527 U.S. *fn1 (1999), we hold that this instructional error is subject to constitutional harmless error analysis rather than structural error analysis. Our review of the record in this case leads us to conclude that the instructional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Thus, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.