Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in People v. Molano, an automatic direct appeal from a February 2008 judgment of death.  (Briefs here; oral argument video here.)

The court does not state the issues involved in death penalty appeals.  (There are normally many different arguments made and, unlike in discretionary review cases, the court cannot limit which issues it will decide.)  In this case, however, 10 days before oral argument the court disclosed one issue presumably of particular interest when it asked the parties to address at the argument “whether, in the absence of a request, the trial court had a duty to instruct that a defendant who genuinely believes the victim consented lacks the specific intent to rape, even if that belief is unreasonable.  (See People v. Flannel (1979) 25 Cal.3d 668, 681-683; People v. Bacigalupo (1991) 1 Cal.4th 103, 126; see generally People v. Mayberry (1975) 15 Cal.3d 143, 153-156.)”

The Molano opinion will leave two undecided April calendar cases, a wage-and-hour matter and another death penalty appeal.  Those two cases will probably be decided this coming Monday, the last regular filing day within the 90-day period.

The Molano opinion can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.