Court Opinion

ID: 9855459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:25:17.223801+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:35:46.983923
License: Public Domain

*641PANELLI, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
 I join fully in Justice Mosk’s opinion, including the approval of the “high probability of death” standard. I am writing separately to emphasize the need for legislative attention to the second degree felony-murder rule.
This case has generated both substantial disagreement and some uneasiness. The disagreement is evident in how the court has split on the issues before us. I am uneasy because we have traveled very close to the edge of our role as judges and have come perilously close to becoming legislators. We have, as the majority notes, however, tried to resolve this case simply by “applying the established definition of inherent dangerousness.” (Maj. opn., ante, p. 627.) But we must bear in mind that both that definition and the crime, itself, are our own creations.
Although courts are often called upon to make policy choices—and this court has not shirked its responsibility to do so—our mandate to make policy in this context is not particularly strong. There are, or at least should be, no nonstatutory crimes in this state. (In re Brown (1973) 9 Cal.3d 612, 624 [108 Cal.Rptr. 465, 510 P.2d 1017]; see Pen. Code, § 6.) The second degree felony-murder rule, however, either creates a nonstatutory crime or increases the punishment for statutory crimes beyond that established by the Legislature. We derive such authority neither from the Constitution (see Cal. Const., art. III, § 3) nor from the Penal Code (See Pen. Code, §§ 6, 12, 13, 15).
My uneasiness with the second degree felony-murder rule is mirrored in the majority’s adoption of the new “high probability of death” standard, which certainly will restrict the rule’s future application. (See dis. opn. of Lucas, C. J., ante, p. 628.) It may also be reflected in how often the majority mentions that the Legislature has failed to act. (Maj. opn., ante, pp. 621, 626, fn. 8, 627.) Today the majority expressly relies on that failure as a justification for continuing to “determine the scope” of this anomalous common law crime. (Maj. opn., ante, p. 627.) But in view of the Legislature’s long-standing declaration that “[n]o act or omission ... is criminal or punishable, except as prescribed or authorized by [the Penal Code]” (Pen. Code, § 6), I question whether subsequent legislative inaction is a sufficient justification.
In short, I am not quite convinced that the second degree felony-murder rule stands on solid constitutional ground. Since the rule permits a court to *642increase the punishment for certain dangerous crimes, the temptation to invoke it is great when we are facing the type of social crisis that illegal drugs have brought upon us. While I am aware of the crisis, nevertheless, I respectfully suggest that it is the Legislature that has the resources and constitutional authority to determine and define what conduct is criminal and to set the punishment for such crimes.
I would affirm the decision of the Court of Appeal.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied November 8, 1989.