Opinion ID: 1122777
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Misapplication of People v. Spears

Text: The majority in Spears, supra, held that because minors are statutorily exempt from the death penalty (§ 190.5), the Legislature likewise intended to exempt them from the lesser penalty of life imprisonment without parole. The Spears majority believed that the death exemption in section 190.5 disclosed an intent to preclude operation of the entire special circumstances statute with respect to minors. (While I disagreed with the Spears analysis, I concurred in the judgment under the compulsion of our earlier holding in People v. Davis (1981) 29 Cal.3d 814 [176 Cal. Rptr. 521, 633 P.2d 186].) The present case involves neither a minor nor a statutory exemption from the death penalty. Defendant herein avoids that penalty only because of the Enmund decision. The high court has nowhere suggested, however, that the lesser penalty of life imprisonment without parole was similarly precluded. Nevertheless, the majority now holds that, simply because defendant is constitutionally exempt from the death penalty, he likewise cannot be sentenced even to the lesser penalty. I think this is wrong. Unlike Spears, where the legislation itself exempted minors from the death penalty, and some uncertainty may have existed regarding legislative intent, in the case before us section 190.2, subdivision (a), expressly and unambiguously requires the imposition of either death or life imprisonment without parole, and no other penalty, for a first degree murder committed during a robbery. The intent to impose either one of these two penalties (and no lesser penalty) is absolutely clear. A subsequent judicial ruling which has precluded imposition of the greater penalty does not affect the propriety of exacting the lesser. Moreover, the 1978 death penalty law contains a detailed and comprehensive severability clause which would preserve the lesser penalty even if imposing the death penalty is unconstitutional as applied to an unintentional felony murder. (See People v. Superior Court ( Colbert ) (1978) 78 Cal. App.3d 1023, 1028 and fn. 3 [144 Cal. Rptr. 599].) The severability provisions (§§ 13, 14 of Initiative Measure approved on Nov. 7, 1978, 47 West's Ann. Pen. Code (1983 Cum. Supp.) foll. § 190, p. 178; Deering's Ann. Pen. Code (1982 Supp.) p. 133), could be readily applied to delete all references to the death penalty as an alternative to life imprisonment without parole in cases to which Enmund applies. For example, section 14 of the initiative measure recites that if any application of the initiative to any person is held invalid as to a defendant sentenced to death, that defendant will instead be sentenced to life imprisonment ... without the possibility of parole. If such a severance can occur following trial and sentence, a fortiori, it can occur prior to trial. The people's intent to preserve and apply the lesser penalty despite the invalidity of the greater one appears manifest.