Court Opinion

ID: 9561951
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:19:23.811692+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:51.285184
License: Public Domain

GRODIN, J.
I concur in that part of the majority opinion which concludes that the admission of prior crimes evidence was prejudicial error. The question of prejudice seems to me a close one, but the People have not argued in their briefs that admission of this evidence was not prejudicial. While defendant’s explanation of his confession seems quite flimsy to me, it was apparently sufficient to raise a doubt as to his guilt in the minds of some jurors in the first trial. In these circumstances I cannot say that the error was not prejudicial.
Having reached this conclusion I see no need to consider the admissibility of defendant’s confession at all, much less engage in what appears to be *396largely a semantic debate over whether People v. Burton (1971) 6 Cal.3d 375 [99 Cal.Rptr. 1, 491 P.2d 793] establishes a “per se” or “totality of circumstances” test for determining when a minor’s request to see a parent, made prior to interrogation, must be deemed an invocation of his Fifth Amendment rights. Burton holds that such a request must be accorded that effect “in the absence of evidence demanding a contrary conclusion.” (Id., at pp. 383-384.) Both the majority and the dissent appear to agree that this rule would not even come into play if it is found that defendant did no more than ask that his father be “contacted,” as distinguished from requesting his presence. (See ante, p. 394, fn. 4; post, p. 403.) What sort of evidence would overcome the Burton presumption in the event of a finding favorable to defendant on this question is not a matter on which I am prepared to speculate.