Court Opinion

ID: 9551220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:49:28.381485+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:21.094939
License: Public Domain

LUCAS, J.
I concur with the majority opinion to the extent it affirms defendant’s first degree murder, kidnaping and robbery convictions and reverses his attempted murder conviction. I dissent, however, from the remaining portion of the judgment, setting aside the special circumstances findings and reversing the judgment of death by reason of People v. Garcia (1984) 36 Cal.3d 539 [205 Cal.Rptr. 265, 684 P.2d 826], and Carlos v. Superior Court (1983) 35 Cal.3d 131 [197 Cal.Rptr. 79, 672 P.2d 862]. For reasons I have previously expressed, I strongly disagree with the hold*390ings in those cases. (See People v. Whitt (1984) 36 Cal.3d 724, 749 [205 Cal.Rptr. 810, 685 P.2d 1161] [dis. opn.].)
Although I have in the past concurred in reversals of some capital cases under the compulsion of Carlos/Garcia (see, e.g., People v. Anderson (1985) 38 Cal.3d 58, 62 [210 Cal.Rptr. 777, 694 P.2d 1149]), I can no longer characterize myself as “concurring” in these reversals. The Carlos and Garcia rulings are responsible for an increasing number of unnecessary reversals and retrials. I would join three of my colleagues in reexamining, and ultimately overruling, those decisions. Accordingly, I cannot join in the judgment of reversal.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied December 31, 1985, and the judgment was modified to read as printed above.