Court Opinion

ID: 9731982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:03:26.685651+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:22.274726
License: Public Domain

GARDNER, P. J.
I concur in all portions of the majority opinion except that portion which holds unconstitutional on the ground that it is cruel or unusual punishment, that portion of Health and Safety Code, § 11912 (now § 11379), which precludes parole consideration for a second offender for sale of restricted dangerous drugs for a minimum period of five years.
While I personally do not believe in long prison sentences, mandatory sentences, or any sentence which precludes parole consideration for any particular period of time, I do not conceive it to be the function of a judge to substitute his opinion for that of the Legislature as to the merits of punishment statutes enacted by the Legislature. Reasonable minds may differ as to the seriousness of various degrees of social misconduct and the appropriate punishment necessary to control those acts. I cannot accept the statement made by counsel in this case that “What the court said in Foss was that it did not like the method the legislature was using to try to solve the drug problem.” (Italics added.) Whether or not any court likes the measures taken by the Legislature is immaterial.
“The choice of fitting and proper penalties is not an exact science, but a legislative skill involving an appraisal of the evils to be corrected, the weighing of practical alternatives, consideration of relevant policy factors, and responsiveness to the public will; in appropriate cases, some leeway for experimentation may also be permissible. The judiciary, accordingly, should not interfere in this process unless a statute prescribes a penalty ‘out of all proportion to the offense’ [citations], i.e., so severe in relation to the crime as to violate the prohibition against cruel or unusual punishment.” (In re Lynch, 8 Cal.3d 410, 423-424 [105 Cal.Rptr. 217, 503 P.2d 921].)
When the Supreme Court in Lynch adopted disproportionality as a test for constitutionality of punishment statutes it applied the three-prong test discussed below. In re Foss, 10 Cal.3d 910 [112 Cal.Rptr. 649, 519 P.2d 1073], applied that test and found unconstitutional a provision precluding parole consideration for 10 years of one convicted of sale of narcotics following a prior conviction for possession of narcotics.
*958The Lynch-Foss test is as follows:
(1) The nature of the offense and/or the offender with particular regard to the degree of danger both present to society.
Having seen too many lives destroyed by the use of LSD .during my years on the trial bench, I list the sale of this substance near the top of any Richter Scale of anti-social misconduct—far above most crimes of violence which usually affect only one victim. While Foss distresses me in its accent on the fact that Mr. Foss was an addict, we are not concerned in this case with that issue. Here, the defendant was not an addict but a commercial operator who sold large quantities of LSD for profit. Therefore, insofar as the offense and the offender are concerned, I find nothing particularly shocking in the penalty prescribed.
However, Foss added a new dimension to Lynch, “a consideration of the penological purposes of the prescribed punishment.” (Foss, supra, pp. 919-920.) Citing People v. Lorentzen, 387 Mich. 167 [194 N.W.2d 827], which struck down a mandatory 20-year minimum term for the sale of marijuana, the court in Foss found the 10-year minimum for a heroin sale following a prior narcotics conviction during which minimum the defendant was precluded from parole consideration to be unconstitutional. It then cited Lynch for the following statement: “ ‘Experts on penology and criminal corrections tend to be of the opinion. that, except for extremely serious crimes or unusually disturbed persons, the goal of rehabilitating offenders with maximum effectiveness can best be reached by short sentences of less than five years’ imprisonment.’ ” (Foss, supra, at p. 924.) However, the court reserved decision as to the validity of the three-year minimum term during which a first offender, under section 11501, would be ineligible for parole consideration. (Foss, supra, at p. 917, fn. 3.) The question immediately presents itself as to just where is the breaking point. Ten years is too much says the Supreme Court. The same court says that three years may not be. How about two years, six and one-half months? Or four years, seven months and twenty-nine days? Or three years, two months and eighteen days? I submit that when courts begin to substitute their views on penological reform for that of the Legislature or set themselves up as some kind of a supervisory agency over punishment statutes, we are seriously eroding the principle of separation of powers.
I grant that it is now the law of this state that a sentence of 10 years for a second heroin sale in which the person is ineligible for parole consideration is unconstitutional. However, I am reluctant to leap from that express holding to a compelled conclusion that any lesser term is neces*959sarily unconstitutional. There is no possibility of balancing severity of crime against severity of punishment with mathematical exactitude. I merely conclude this portion of my comments by stating that considering the nature of the offense and the nature of the offender, I do not feel that the punishment in this case is so disproportionate to the crime for which it is inflicted that it shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human dignity.
(2) A comparison of the penalty with punishment imposed for more serious crimes in California.
There are few more serious crimes than the sale of LSD. Usually only one person is murdered, kidnaped, raped or assaulted. The acid pusher destroys or attempts to destroy all of his customers, young and old, weak and strong.1 In any matter of comparative evil, the sale of LSD is a major crime for the commission of which major punishment may and should be prescribed. I find nothing in the comparison of the punishment for this crime with the punishment for those crimes of violence set forth on page 926 of Foss which causes me to feel that the punishment for this crime is so disproportionate to the crime for which it is inflicted that it shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human dignity.
(3) A comparison of the penalty with punishment prescribed for the same offense in other jurisdictions.
In this respect, the Attorney General has furnished us with a synopsis of laws in other states covering the penalties for the sale of narcotics. Limiting ourselves to sale with a prior narcotics conviction—the instant case—we find the following minimum terms:
Alaska—10 to 20 years, must serve minimum term.
Arizona—10 years, to life, must serve minimum term.
Arkansas—5 to 10 years, must serve minimum term.
Colorado—15 to 30 years, must serve minimum term.
Delaware—30 to 99 years, with 15-year minimum term with prior sale.
Georgia—10 years to life, with 10-year minimum term.
Indiana—20 years to life, must serve minimum term.
Nebraska—10 to 40 years, must serve minimum term.
*960Tennessee—10 to 30 years, must serve minimum term.
In addition to those states which have minimum terms, the following states have the following terms for sales with prior narcotics convictions without notation as to what minimum must be served:
Idaho 30 years
Illinois 2 to 40 years
Iowa 30 years
Louisiana 10 to 60 years
Maine 5 to 20 years
Maryland 40 years
Massachusetts 10 to 25 years
Michigan 40 years
Mississippi 12 years
New Hampshire 25 years
New Jersey 24 years
New Mexico Life
North Dakota 20 years
Pennsylvania 10 to 30 years
Texas 10 years to life
Washington 20 years
Wisconsin 30 years
Wyoming 40 years
It should also be pointed out that in the neighboring State of Nevada a sale with a prior narcotic sale results in a penalty of life without possibility of parole.
It is rather obvious from this that there is no shocking disproportionality between the sentence in this state and the sentence assessed in the other states. Therefore, under this prong of the Lynch-Foss test, I cannot find that the punishment for the second sale of LSD is so disproportionate to the crime for which it is inflicted that it shocks the conscience and offends fundamental notions of human dignity.
*961Applying all three of the Lynch-Foss tests, I do not find that the penalty for second sale of LSD is at all out of proportion to the offense, i.e., so severe in relation to the crime as to violate the precept against cruel or unusual punishment.
I do not find the penalty aspect which precludes parole consideration for a sécond offense to be unconstitutional, therefore, I would affirm the judgment in its entirety.
The petitions of the appellant and the respondent for a hearing by the Supreme Court were denied November 21, 1974. Sullivan, J., and Clark, J., were of the opinion that the petitions should be granted.

 Governor Rockefeller in addressing his state’s legislature last year, said, “The hard-drug pusher is a cold and cynical destroyer of lives as much as any killer.”