Court Opinion

ID: 9610840
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:47:59.607577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:05.285683
License: Public Domain

KAUS, J.,
Concurring and Dissenting. — I respectfully dissent from the court’s holding that the trial court erred in setting aside count V — compounding a felony.
*746As the majority points out, under Penal Code section 153 there are three elements to the offense of compounding a crime: (1) knowledge of the original crime; (2) an ¡agreement not to prosecute that crime; and (3) receipt of consideration.1 The difficulty here is, obviously, element (2): Pic’l never agreed not to prosecute, but, rather, solicited Kerhulas to so agree.
The majority asserts that the words of section 153 cover a party “regardless of whether he is the one who refrains from prosecuting the crime.” I can agree that it, does no violence to the statute, as presently worded, to hold that persons other than the victim of the underlying felony who agree to compound or conceal a crime may violate section 153. That is what the dictum in Hoines v. Barney’s Club, Inc. (1980) 28 Cal.3d 603, 610 [170 Cal.Rptr. 42, 620 P.2d 628], was all about.
It is, however, an entirely different matter to extend the reach of the statute to a person such as Pic’l who never agreed with anyone that he would compound or conceal the theft of the stolen drag racer. With all respect to the majority, I simply find it impossible to interpret section 153 as it presently reads as condemning the conduct of both parties to the “illicit negotiations” —the solicitor-promisee (Pic’l) as well as the solicitee-promisor (Kerhulas). Particularly in light of its common law heritage, the language of section 153— “[e]very person who .. . takes money [etc.] ... upon any agreement ... to abstain from any prosecution thereof ...” (see fn. 1, ante) — simply cannot be stretched to cover not only the person who agrees not to prosecute, but also the one who solicits the agreement.
Contrary to the implication of the majority opinion (ante, p. 745), in my view the Model Penal Code provides no support for the majority’s interpretation of section 153. Nowhere in the code’s extensive discussion of the origin and development of the crime of compounding is it suggested that compounding statutes similar to section 153 should properly be interpreted to apply to a person who solicits an agreement not to prosecute as well as the person who actually agrees not to prosecute. (See 3 Model Pen. Code ((Official Draft 1980 ed.) § 242.5 & com. at pp. 244-247, 255-256.) Irideed, the commentary to the code makes it *747clear that in framing the most current, official draft of the code’s recommended compounding statute, the draftsmen consciously decided not to extend the reach of the statute to cover a party — like Pic’l — who solicits or pays for the promise not to prosecute, (id., at p. 256.)2
I fully agree with the majority that morally the solicitor of such an agreement is at least as guilty as the solicitee. This is undoubtedly the reason why six jurisdictions listed in the Hastings Law Journal footnote referred to in the majority opinion (ante, p. 745) have enacted statutes punishing not only the solicitee-promisor but also the solicitor-promisee. I reproduce the footnote below.3 If I were a legislator, I might well vote for such a statute. As a judge, however, I cannot stretch the meaning of section 153 so as to make the legislation unnecessary.
Bird, C. J., and Broussard, J., concurred.

Section 153 reads in part: “Every person who, having knowledge of the actual commission of a crime, takes money or property of another, or any gratuity or reward ... upon any agreement or understanding to compound or conceal such crime, or to abstain from any prosecution thereof, or to withhold any evidence thereof ... is punishable as follows: ...”

The commentary states: “It may be argued that the exemption of the original wrongdoer, however explicable historically, lacks sound basis in policy. Some modern revision efforts have accepted this conclusion by including the alleged offender who pays for the promise not to prosecute as well as the victim or witness who accepts the payment. Section 242.5 does not provide for this result, however, on the ground that prosecution for the underlying offense itself, which of course will not be forestalled by the effort to undermine discovery of the offense, provides an adequate response, supplemented by the provision on tampering with witnesses and informants wherever that offense is applicable.” (Fns. omitted.)

The footnote (Comment, Compounding Crimes: Time for Enforcement? (1975) 27 Hastings L.J. 175, 190, fn. 78) reads: “See Del. Code Ann. tit. 11, § 1246 (1973); Ill. Ann. Stat. ch. 38, § 32-1 (Supp. 1974) ch. 406, § 165, [1974] Ky. Acts 858; N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 642:5 (Supp. 1973); N.Y. Penal Law § 215.45 (McKinney 1967); Utah Code Ann. § 76-8-308 (Supp. 1973). According to the Illinois statute, a person ‘compounds a crime when he receives or offers to another any consideration for a promise not to prosecute or aid in the prosecution of an offender.’ Ill. Ann. Stat. ch. 38, § 32-1 (Supp. 1974) (emphasis added). The other five states all use wording such as that in the New York compounding statute, whereby one compounds a crime when ‘(a) He solicits, accepts or agrees to accept any benefit upon an agreement or understanding that he will refrain from initiating a prosecution for a crime; or (b) He confers, or offers or agrees to confer, any benefit upon another person upon an agreement or understanding that such other person will refrain from initiating a prosecution for a crime.’ N.Y. Penal Law § 215.45 (McKinney 1967) (emphasis added).”