Opinion ID: 1383118
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Due process requires the right to counsel in parole revocation proceedings.

Text: The due process right to a hearing includes the right to appear by counsel. [63] ( Chandler v. Fretag (1954) 348 U.S. 3, 8-9 [99 L.Ed. 4, 9-10, 75 S.Ct. 1]; Mendoza v. Small Claims Court (1958) 49 Cal.2d 668, 673 [321 P.2d 9]; Steen v. Board of Civil Service Commrs. (1945) 26 Cal.2d 716, 727 [160 P.2d 816].) In its consideration of the right to hearing and counsel under the due process clause in Powell v. Alabama (1932) 287 U.S. 45, 68-69 [77 L.Ed. 158, 170-171, 53 S.Ct. 55, 84 A.L.R. 527], the United States Supreme Court observed, What, then, does a hearing include? Historically and in practice, in our own country at least, it has always included the right to the aid of counsel when desired and provided by the party asserting the right. The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel.... If in any case, civil or criminal, a state or federal court were arbitrarily to refuse to hear a party by counsel, employed by and appearing for him, it reasonably may not be doubted that such a refusal would be a denial of a hearing, and, therefore, of due process in the constitutional sense. Courts have held that the protection of due process includes the right to appear by retained attorney in an extremely wide variety of civil and administrative proceedings, including proceedings to terminate welfare benefits ( Goldberg v. Kelly, supra, 397 U.S. 254, 270 [25 L.Ed.2d 287, 300]); to discharge a government employee ( Steen v. Board of Civil Service Commrs., supra, 26 Cal.2d 716, 727); to revoke a liquor license (see Molina v. Munro (1956) 145 Cal. App.2d 601, 606-607 [302 P.2d 818]); and to determine eligibility for unemployment compensation ( Staley v. California Unemployment Ins. App. Bd. (1970) 6 Cal. App.3d 675, 678 [86 Cal. Rptr. 294]; see also 5 U.S.C.A. § 555(b) (1967); Gov. Code, § 11509; California Administrative Agency Practice (Cont. Ed. Bar 1970) § 1.30, at p. 26); cf., FTC Announcement, 39 U.S.L. Week. 2364 (1970)). The logical corrollary of the right to counsel is the right of indigents to the appointment of counsel at state expense in criminal cases (see Gideon v. Wainwright, supra, 372 U.S. 335, 344 [9 L.Ed.2d 799, 805]) and in proceedings, administrative or otherwise, which assume the formality of civil proceedings but which expose such an indigent to consequences analogous to a criminal conviction. (See, e.g., Specht v. Patterson (1967) 386 U.S. 605, 608-610 [18 L.Ed.2d 326, 329-331, 87 S.Ct. 1209] (civil commitment of sex offender); In re Gault, supra, 387 U.S. 1, 41 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 553-554] (juvenile proceedings); In re Harris (1968) 69 Cal.2d 486, 491 [72 Cal. Rptr. 340, 446 P.2d 148] (mesne process of civil arrest); People v. Shipman (1965) 62 Cal.2d 226, 232 [42 Cal. Rptr. 1, 397 P.2d 993] (coram nobis); In re Raner (1963) 59 Cal.2d 635, 642 [30 Cal. Rptr. 814, 381 P.2d 638] (commitment for narcotics addiction).) Most recently, the United States Supreme Court has established the right to both retained and appointed counsel in probation revocation hearings. ( Mempa v. Rhay, supra, 389 U.S. 128, 134, 137 [19 L.Ed.2d 336, 340, 341-342].) The court declared that the individual is entitled to counsel at every stage of a criminal proceeding where substantial rights of a criminal accused may be affected. (389 U.S. at p. 134 [19 L.Ed.2d at p. 340].) Although the Supreme Court has not yet extended Mempa to parole revocation, [64] a number of distinguished courts have now held that indigent parolees have the right to appointed counsel in parole revocation proceedings. (See Bey v. Connecticut St. Bd. of Parole (2d Cir.1971) 443 F.2d 1079; Earnest v. Moseley (10th Cir.1970) 426 F.2d 466, 468-469; Menechino v. Warden (1971) 27 N.Y.2d 376 [318 N.Y.S.2d 449, 267 N.E.2d 238]; Warren v. Michigan Parole Bd. (1970) 23 Mich. App. 754 [179 N.W.2d 664]; Commonwealth v. Tinson (1969) 433 Pa. 328 [249 A.2d 549]; Mays v. Nelson (N.D.Cal. 1971) 323 F. Supp. 587, 589-590; Wilburn v. Nelson (N.D.Cal. 1970) 323 F. Supp. 585, 586-587; Ellhamer v. Wilson (N.D.Cal. 1969) 312 F. Supp. 1245; Goolsby v. Gagnon (E.D.Wis. 1971) 322 F. Supp. 460.) No meaningful distinction can be drawn between the probation revocation hearing involved in Mempa and parole revocation proceedings involved here. In hearings both as to revocation of probation and parole the basic question becomes whether the individual has violated the terms of his release. In both situations revocation will result in commitment to prison. In Mempa the judge imposed a prison sentence and recommended the length of term the probationer should serve in prison. The Adult Authority not only returns the parolee to prison, but determines, rather than recommends, the length of time which the prisoner will serve. Hence, even more substantial rights are affected in parole revocation than in probation revocation. Certainly, the assistance of counsel is indispensable and invaluable in both situations. Counsel can help delineate the issues, present the factual contentions in an orderly manner, ... generally safeguard the interests of the parolee (see Goldberg v. Kelly, supra, 397 U.S. 254, 270-271 [25 L.Ed.2d 287, 300]), submit mitigating circumstances, and assist the hearing representative in reaching the appropriate decision. (See Mempa v. Rhay, supra, 389 U.S. 128, 135 [19 L.Ed.2d 336, 340-341]; Kadish, The Advocate and the Expert-Counsel in the Peno-Correctional Process (1961) 45 Minn.L.Rev. 803, 830-833.) Furthermore, the Adult Authority may only revoke parole for cause; a legal question may arise as to what constitutes cause under a particular set of circumstances [65]  an issue which calls for the skill of the lawyer. Basically, the present system requires the parolee to become his own advocate. His lack of skill and training must not only lead to a feeling of frustration that he cannot properly present his case but to a conviction of injustice in being placed in such a predicament. This situation of disparity is incompatible with the basic concept of due process. Obviously, the length, format, and conduct of the revocation hearing will remain in the sound discretion of the hearing representative. We do not anticipate that [the assistance of counsel] will unduly prolong or otherwise encumber the hearing. ( Goldberg v. Kelly, supra, 397 U.S. 254, 271 [25 L.Ed.2d 287, 300].) In any event, the danger of obstructive tactics cannot constitute a reason for barring all attorneys from revocation hearings. California does not even permit the parolee to be represented by his own retained counsel at the parole revocation hearing  much less by counsel appointed for the indigent parolees. The federal parole system [66] and many state parole boards [67] have for many years permitted retained attorneys to participate in such hearings. We find no indication that this practice has impaired the parole system. The majority's anachronistic position that any due process right of the parolee to retained counsel dissolves in the impracticability of effectuating it, succumbs to the successful practice of permitting such representation by many states and by the federal government. Furthermore, the cost of appointing counsel in parole revocation hearings would impose an insignificant economic burden as compared with the present cost of providing appointed counsel in felony and misdemeanor cases. [68] In summary, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger recently declared in his State of the Federal Judiciary, The system of criminal justice must be viewed as a process embracing every phase from crime prevention through the correctional system. We can no longer limit our responsibility to providing defense services for the judicial process, yet continue to be miserly with the needs of correctional institutions and probation and parole services. The first step in the recognition of this newly understood responsibility would be to provide for representation of counsel for a parolee in parole revocation proceedings. The basic principles of due process require that a parolee be afforded the right to counsel at such proceedings. At a time in the development of the law when the improvement of postconviction procedures for the rehabilitation of offenders has become a matter of first importance and when the protections of due process of law have been both strengthened in content and broadened in application, California lags behind the federal courts and most other jurisdictions in the judicial treatment of parolees. For example, such major states as New York and Pennsylvania now require the appointment of counsel in parole revocation proceedings. This state, however, denies to the parolee any protection of due process of law; it accords him not even the rudiments of due process; it does not by law render to the parolee notice of charges of revocation proceedings; it does not by law afford the parolee an opportunity to be heard at the revocation proceedings; it does not permit the parolee to be represented by counsel at the hearing. The courts have, at the same time, safeguarded the individual from the garnishment of his wages by affording him the protection of due process. The courts have held that the welfare recipient cannot be taken off the rolls without a hearing. The courts have extended the protection of due process to other situations involving the loss of employment and property. Can due process of law be so bifurcated in California that it forbids the state's garnishment of a parolee's property without a hearing but not the seizure of his person? Granted that the parolee must be subject to supervision, he has been accorded his freedom from prison; that freedom is as precious to him as it is to any other person; the deprivation of that freedom is as subject to arbitrary action as it is to any other person. A fundamental purpose of due process of law is to give the individual the chance to be heard so that the ascertainment of the truth will prevent arbitrary and unjust state action. Why should the parolee be denied this chance to be heard?