People v. Hughes, 27 Cal.4th 287, 27 Cal.4th 825A, 39 P.3d 432, 116 Cal.Rptr.2d 401, 02 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 738, 2002 Daily Journal D.A.R. 961

The Supreme Court, George, C.J., held that: (1) prosecutor's elicitation of testimony concerning timing of defendant's request for counsel was not improper comment on defendant's post-arrest silence; (2) order in which guilt phase instructions were given did not pose substantial risk of misleading jury as to applicability of voluntary intoxication defense to murder charge; (3) trial court was required sua sponte to instruct jury on intent required for rape as predicate felony for burglary; (4) its failure to do so did not prejudice burglary conviction or related special circumstance; (5) evidence of intent was sufficient to support robbery conviction, robbery-murder conviction, and robbery-murder special circumstance; (6) evidence of pre-mortem sexual attack was sufficient to support conviction of forcible sodomy and finding of sodomy-murder special circumstance; (7) prosecutor's references to absence of defense evidence did not improperly highlight defendant's failure to testify; (8) use of single special circumstance instruction to address all three special circumstances presented was not misleading; (9) penalty phase jury was improperly instructed that defendant's possession of sharpened instrument could form basis of finding of aggravating circumstance of criminal activity involving violence; and (10) death sentence was not disproportionate to defendant's personal responsibility and moral guilt.