Flight

Flight is the act of fleeing a crime or hiding to avoid arrest or prosecution. In California, a prosecutor may use a defendant's flight from a crime scene to show consciousness of guilt (i.e., that he was aware of his guilt). Evidence of flight is considered such powerful evidence of guilt that the court is required to instruct a trial jury that flight alone is not enough to convict a defendant but is something that the jury should consider in deciding a defendant's guilt or innocence. (California Criminal Jury Instruction 372).