Opinion ID: 2619533
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Defendant's other contentions are without merit.

Text: [5] Defendant contends that to subject him to the death penalty for an assault which did not result in the death of the victim is to inflict cruel and unusual punishment upon him. We have long upheld section 4500 against this and related challenges to the penalty which it imposes. ( In re Wells (1950) 35 Cal.2d 889, 895 [221 P.2d 947] (cruel and unusual punishment); People v. Oppenheimer (1969) 156 Cal. 733, 737 [106 P. 74] (cruel and unusual punishment); People v. Jefferson (1956) 47 Cal.2d 438, 444 [303 P.2d 1024] equal protection); People v. Wells (1949) 33 Cal.2d 330, 335 [202 P.2d 53] (equal protection).) These decisions do not necessarily settle the question for all time, however, since in applying the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment we must reflect the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society. ( Trop v. Dulles (1958) 356 U.S. 86, 101 [2 L.Ed.2d 630, 642, 78 S.Ct. 590] (opn. of the Chief Justice), quoted with approval in Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra, 391 U.S. 510, 519, fn. 15 [20 L.Ed.2d 776, 783, 88 S.Ct. 1770].) Defendant seems to suggest that the death penalty may be cruel and unusual under any circumstances whatever; we rejected this contention in In re Anderson (1968) 69 Cal.2d 613, 629-631 [73 Cal. Rptr. 21, 447 P.2d 117]. Defendant further argues that attacks by prisoners on guards or other prisoners are common, and that section 4500 lacks any substantial deterrent effect. These arguments might lead the Legislature to call into question the wisdom of section 4500, but we do not in this case hold the section unconstitutional. (See Trop v. Dulles, supra, 356 U.S. 86, 100 [2 L.Ed.2d 630, 642, 78 S.Ct. 590] (opn. of the Chief Justice).) [6] Defendant further contends that he was unconstitutionally denied the assistance of counsel. Defendant concedes that, as we stated in People v. Mattson (1959) 51 Cal.2d 777, 788-789 [336 P.2d 937], Except in certain situations not here pertinent, the court cannot force a competent defendant to be represented by an attorney. (Compare Cal. Const., art. I, § 13; Pen. Code, § 686.) In this case defendant insisted at the beginning of the proceedings that he did not wish to be represented by the public defender. At first the trial court refused to permit defendant to represent himself. When defendant persisted in this request, however, the court inquired extensively into his competence to waive counsel and to defend himself. Defendant stated that he had experienced three other prosecutions for violations of section 4500, that he had studied law in his cell, that he was familiar with some rules of evidence, and that he had begun preparation of the case. The public defender agreed to turn all of his legal notes over to the defendant. Under these circumstances the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting defendant's request that he be allowed to represent himself. [7] Defendant complains that he was forced to dismiss the public defender as his attorney because defendant disagreed with him on the handling of the case. Defendant insists that he was entitled to the appointment of another attorney who would handle the case in the manner of defendant's preference. This contention has been considered and rejected in a number of decisions. In People v. Nailor (1966) 240 Cal. App.2d 489, 494 [49 Cal. Rptr. 616], for example, the court stated, It is now argued that the refusal of the public defender to make the 995 motion and of the court to appoint another public defender deprived defendant of his right to counsel. It is pointed out that if defendant were rich and his attorney refused to make such a motion, he could always hire another attorney. The argument misses the point: there is no constitutional right to an attorney who will conduct the defense of the case in accordance with an indigent defendant's whims. ( People v. Mattson, 51 Cal.2d 777, 793 [336 P.2d 937]; In re Atchley, 48 Cal.2d 408, 418-419 [310 P.2d 15].) The ability of a rich client to change attorneys like shirts when they refuse to do his bidding is not necessarily an advantage. Until the contrary is proved we will continue to believe that a member of the legal profession knows better how to conduct a lawsuit than his lay client. The trial court, of course, retains discretion to substitute a new attorney whenever that will best promote [the] orderly, prompt and just disposition of the cause. (See People v. Mattson, supra, 51 Cal.2d 777, 797.) Nothing in the record indicates, however, that the trial court here abused its discretion in failing to offer defendant a new attorney. [8] Although conceding that the public defender acted as his advisor until his plea of guilty, and that the trial court gave much assistance to him throughout the trial, defendant contends that he so ineffectively conducted his own defense as to reduce the trial to a sham. Defendant points to instances in which he asserts that an attorney would have acted more wisely and with greater effect. Yet, before permitting defendant to dismiss the public defender and represent himself, the trial court warned defendant of precisely this danger. Under the circumstances defendant cannot complain because his decision to represent himself proved to be unfortunate. The record does not indicate that defendant's conduct of the defense was so inept as to reduce the trial to a sham or farce, nor does it suggest that the prosecution took undue advantage of the absence of counsel. [9] Defendant also objects to the admission by the trial court of a 30-page document admittedly written by defendant and purporting to describe a number of crimes committed by the author, including two murders. Defendant contends that since he had been acquitted of one of the murders, the prosecution should not have been permitted to attempt to prove that he had in fact committed that crime. We have repeatedly held, however, that if evidence of another offense is otherwise admissible, the fact that the defendant was acquitted does not render the evidence inadmissible. ( People v. Griffin (1963) 60 Cal.2d 182, 191 [32 Cal. Rptr. 24, 383 P.2d 432] (and cases cited).) [10] Defendant further complains that the trial court failed to instruct the jury that the prosecution and defense had stipulated that the document had been written as fiction. The stipulation in question reached only to the fact that defendant did not admit the truth of the writing; the court so cautioned the jury before parts of the writing were read by the prosecution. Defendant complains, finally, of certain allegedly inaccurate statements contained in the prosecution's closing argument. [11] The district attorney contended that defendant was guilty of first degree murder in the killings of Benny Slankard, Delbert Blow, and Conrad Becker, although in fact defendant had been acquitted of first degree murder in the first two cases and had pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the third. The prosecutor's statements rested upon reasonable inferences from the evidence that were not foreclosed by the acquittals. ( People v. Griffin, supra, 60 Cal.2d 182, 191.) [12] The prosecutor urged that it was defendant who seriously injured Officer Bessette; this inference reasonably arose from the testimony of Lancaster that only he and defendant fought Bessette, and that he, Lancaster, never hit Bessette. Bessette's testimony, although somewhat unclear, seemed to indicate that it was Lancaster rather than defendant who injured Bessette; the prosecution could permissibly ask that the jury credit Lancaster's testimony instead of Bessette's. [13] Further, defendant claims that the prosecutor erroneously suggested that the psychiatrist who examined defendant, a Dr. Emmons, concluded that defendant showed no remorse about his crimes. In fact the prosecutor did no more than quote with accuracy Dr. Emmon's testimony, which clearly indicated that defendant had shown no remorse. [14] The prosecutor did erroneously state that one of defendant's alleged victims, Conrad Becker, had been armed with a pair of shears at the time of his death. Apparently the shears were in the hands of an alleged accomplice of defendant, one Red Fenton. This error could only have benefited defendant, however, since it conjured up a vision of an armed adversary rather than an attack by two armed men upon a helpless victim. [15] Finally, defendant complains that the prosecutor argued that the defendant was serving four life terms, none of them for the death of any of the people he had killed. In fact one of those life terms had been imposed for the second degree murder of Conrad Becker. Early in the trial an employee of the Department of Corrections had testified that one of defendant's life terms was for second degree murder; the People introduced as one of its exhibits a copy of the commitment for second degree murder. The prosecutor made this erroneous statement while arguing that a life sentence in this case would not greatly affect defendant since he was already serving four other life terms. Thus the misstatement did not relate to the prosecutor's main line of argument. The prosecutor's error, moreover, if noted by the jury, may well have benefited defendant, since the jury might have inferred from the statement that the state had never been able to convict defendant of any of the killings with which the People had charged him. Under these circumstances the two errors with regard to the Becker killing did not constitute substantial error requiring reversal of the penalty trial under People v. Hines (1964) 61 Cal.2d 164, 169 [37 Cal. Rptr. 622, 390 P.2d 398].