Opinion ID: 2517596
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Admit Evidence of Offer to Plead Guilty

Text: Defendant urges that the trial court erred in ruling inadmissible defendant's offer to plead guilty, thereby depriving her of crucial mitigating evidence and violating her constitutional right to due process of law. [6] As discussed in detail above, after extensive in camera consultation between defense counsel and the trial court regarding defendant's desire to enter a guilty plea, the trial court concluded no irreconcilable conflict between defendant and her counsel existed, and the case proceeded to trial. The transcript of those in camera proceedings discloses that defense counsel believed that defendant sought to enter an unconditional plea of guilty, and counsel's refusal to grant consent was based upon his concern that defendant would be pleading guilty for all intents and purposes to a death sentence. Thereafter, the prosecutor, who was not present at the in camera proceedings, made a pretrial motion to exclude evidence of defense counsel's offer to enter a conditional plea of guilty. [7] The prosecutor contended that although an offer of an unconditional guilty plea would be relevant mitigating evidence, defendant's offer to plead guilty on condition that she receive a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole did not constitute mitigating evidence and should be excluded from consideration by the jury. [8] It is evident from the colloquy between the prosecutor and the trial court that the prosecutor's in limine motion sought solely to exclude evidence of defendant's conditional offer to plead guilty. In opposing the motion, defense counsel reiterated the offer to enter a conditional guilty plea in order to demonstrate that defendant indeed felt remorse for her commission of the crime. In response, the prosecutor stated that pursuit of the death penalty in this case was nonnegotiable and that only an unconditional plea of guilty would constitute evidence of remorse. The trial court granted the prosecutor's motion and prohibited defense counsel from introducing evidenceat either the guilt phase or the penalty phaseof defendant's conditional offer to plead guilty. The court reasoned that a mere offer to plead guilty, on condition that the prosecutor not seek the death penalty, would not be relevant evidence at the guilt phase and would not be the proper subject of mitigating testimony at the penalty phase. Ultimately, no evidence of defendant's unaccepted conditional offer to plead guilty was presented at either the guilt or the penalty phase of trial. The Attorney General urges that defendant forfeited her claim because after the court made its ruling, defense counsel did not raise the issue with the court again or attempt at either of the two penalty phase trials to introduce evidence of defendant's conditional offer to plead guilty. While it may not be necessary to renew an objection already overruled in the same trial [citation], absent a ruling or stipulation that objections and rulings will be deemed renewed and made in a later trial [citation], the failure to object bars consideration of the issue on appeal. ( People v. Clark (1990) 50 Cal.3d 583, 623-624, 268 Cal.Rptr. 399, 789 P.2d 127.) Defendant's claim of error relates to the exclusion, from her penalty retrial, of evidence of her unaccepted conditional offer to plead guilty. Defendant's claim is forfeited, because the prosecutor did not renew his motion to exclude evidence of defendant's unaccepted conditional offer to plead guilty at the penalty retrial, no stipulation was entered into regarding the renewal of objections and rulings at defendant's penalty retrial, and defendant did not herself seek to present evidence of her earlier conditional plea offer in mitigation at her penalty retrial. Defendant's claim also fails on the merits. The jury at the second penalty phase trial was presented with extensive evidence of defendant's remorse, including her full taped confession, during which she repeatedly expressed remorse for her commission of the crime. The jury also heard the testimony given by defendant at her first penalty trial, in which she read a letter she had written to the victim and her family expressing remorse for committing the murder. Finally, numerous defense witnesses described defendant's sorrow and remorse concerning the murder, and provided multiple accounts of defendant breaking down and crying because of her remorse. The admission of defendant's offer to enter a conditional plea of guilty to demonstrate her remorse and her acceptance of responsibility for the crime would have been cumulative to these accounts. There is no reasonable possibility the outcome would have been different had the trial court admitted evidence of defendant's conditional offer to plead guilty. ( People v. Robinson (2005) 37 Cal.4th 592, 641-642, 36 Cal.Rptr.3d 760, 124 P.3d 363; People v. Brown (1988) 46 Cal.3d 432, 448, 250 Cal.Rptr. 604, 758 P.2d 1135.) Although the prosecutor's motion to exclude the offer to enter the guilty plea, and the ensuing discussion between the parties and the trial court at the hearing, focused solely upon defendant's conditional offer to plead guilty, defendant now contends that the trial court erred in granting the motion because, as the court was well aware, defendant sought (but was not permitted) to enter an unconditional plea of guilty at the February 21, 1992 in camera hearing. Defendant apparently contends the trial court had a duty, on its own motion, specifically to acknowledge and admit evidence of defendant's desire to plead guilty unconditionally, having become aware at the in camera proceedings of that desire. As noted above, defendant's claim of error relates to exclusion of this evidence at the penalty retrial, but because defendant did not seek admission of such evidence at that trial, defendant's claim is forfeited. To the extent defendant argues the trial court had an independent duty to raise the issue on its own and thereafter offer and admit such evidence at her penalty retrial, defendant does not offer any authority recognizing such a duty, and we decline to impose such an obligation on the trial court. Defendant contends defense counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in failing to seek admission of evidence of defendant's willingness to plead guilty unconditionally and failing to cite People v. Williams (1988) 45 Cal.3d 1268, 248 Cal.Rptr. 834, 756 P.2d 221, to the trial court for the proposition that an offer to plead guilty might be admissible as mitigating evidence in a capital case if tending to demonstrate remorse. [9] As we discussed above, trial counsel presented extensive evidence to the second penalty phase jury relating to defendant's remorse. Accordingly, trial counsel's failure to seek admission of evidence of defendant's desire to plead guilty unconditionally, or to cite authority supporting the admission of such evidence, was harmless because no reasonable probability exists that, but for counsel's failure to seek the admission of such evidence, the result of the proceedings would have been more favorable to defendant. ( People v. Stanley (2006) 39 Cal.4th 913, 965, 47 Cal.Rptr.3d 420, 140 P.3d 736 ( Stanley ); Strickland, supra, 466 U.S. at pp. 688, 694, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674.).