Jury instructions: lesser related offenses.

Subdivision (d) was deleted in its entirety. It had stated: 'It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting subdivision (b) to restore the right of a defendant to receive jury instructions on lesser related offenses as originally guaranteed by the California Supreme Court in People v. Geiger (1984) 35 Cal.3d 510.' Removing this legislative intent statement may affect judicial interpretation of the statute's relationship to the Geiger decision.

The legislative counsel's digest no longer includes the sentence describing the bill's intent to restore Geiger rights, consistent with the removal of subdivision (d).

Formatting and header changes reflect the enrolled status: 'as amended' removed from digest, coauthor line removed, page numbers adjusted, and standard enrolled bill language added (governor receipt and approval lines).

Assembly Member Bonta was added as a coauthor of the bill alongside Senator Cortese and Assembly Member Schultz.

An empty subdivision (c) was removed from the bill text, with the legislative intent statement remaining as subdivision (d). This is a drafting cleanup with no substantive policy effect.

All amendments to Penal Code Section 93 (bribery by judicial officers, jurors, referees, arbitrators, and umpires) were removed from the bill. The Senate version had included technical changes to bribery penalty provisions; the Assembly stripped these out entirely.

Senator Cortese was added as a coauthor of the bill in the Assembly version.

A new subdivision (c) requires a defendant seeking lesser related offense instruction to provide notice of intent to the prosecution no later than the commencement of jury selection, or before presentation of evidence if the jury is waived. The notice requirement can only be waived with prosecution consent or upon a showing of good cause.

The former subdivision (c) stating legislative intent to restore rights from People v. Geiger was renumbered to subdivision (d) to accommodate the new notice provision.

The bill now amends Section 1159 of the Penal Code in addition to Section 93, shifting its primary focus from bribery to criminal procedure and jury instructions on lesser related offenses.

Subdivision (a) of Section 1159 now explicitly authorizes a judge (not just a jury) to find a defendant guilty of a necessarily included offense when a jury trial is waived, and uses gender-neutral language.

Assembly Member Schultz was added as a coauthor, indicating broader legislative support for the expanded bill.

New subdivision (b) of Section 1159 requires a court to instruct the jury on a lesser closely related offense upon defendant's request if three conditions are met: (1) the defendant relies on a defense theory consistent with the lesser offense, (2) evidence of the lesser offense is relevant and admitted for the charged offense, and (3) a basis exists other than unexplainable rejection of prosecution evidence on which the jury could find the offense less than charged.

New subdivision (c) of Section 1159 states legislative intent that the bill restores the right to receive jury instructions on lesser related offenses as originally guaranteed by the California Supreme Court in People v. Geiger (1984) 35 Cal.3d 510.

Section 93 bribery provisions retain the original technical changes: replacing 'his or her' with 'their', 'him or her' with 'them', and removing redundant 'in cases where if' phrasing.