Opinion ID: 1351466
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constitutionality of Prior Felony Convictions

Text: (36) Defendant contends that our holding in People v. Lang, supra, 49 Cal.3d at pages 1038-1039, i.e., that a prior conviction that was a felony under the law of the convicting jurisdiction is ipso facto admissible under section 190.3, factor (c), makes the use of such convictions unconstitutional. Although his argument is unclear, he appears to advance two separate theories. He first asserts that the use of such convictions violates equal protection of the laws because they would not have been admissible under section 190.3, factor (c), if they had arisen in California. To that extent, however, a defendant against whom they are admitted is not situated similarly to a defendant with prior California felony convictions. To use defendant's own example, such a defendant has no greater cause for complaint than a defendant against whom is admitted a prior felony conviction arising from conduct that might have been charged as  or bargained down to  a lesser offense in a different county of this state. Nor is any resulting discrimination invidious when, as in the case at bar, the defendant's conduct in the convicting state would in any event have been criminal to some degree in California. Defendant next claims the use of such convictions violates the Eighth Amendment to the federal Constitution because it results in arbitrary and unreliable sentencing. He appears to argue, without citation of authority, that a California jury does not have enough information to make a rational sentencing decision when it does not know the facts underlying an out-of-state conviction but merely the artificial label of the conviction itself. The argument is unpersuasive. A California jury does not know much more, if anything, about a conviction suffered in California. In any event, the fact that certain conduct is characterized as felonious by another state of this Union is more than a mere label; it represents the considered judgment of the people of that state that the conduct is so far below the norms of civilized behavior and morality that it deserves strong condemnation and significant punishment. For a California jury to give weight to such a felony conviction does not make its sentencing decision capricious and arbitrary within the meaning of Eighth Amendment jurisprudence.