Court Opinion

ID: 9685286
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 14:29:05.108809+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:04.147059
License: Public Domain

KENNARD, J., Dissenting.
Penal Code section 1385, subdivision (a), requires that the reasons for a trial court’s dismissal of a criminal action “be set forth in an order entered upon the minutes.” (All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.) This court has said that this legislative directive is mandatory and that noncompliance results in an automatic reversal of the trial court’s judgment. (People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497, 531 [53 Cal.Rptr.2d 789, 917 P.2d 628]; People v. Orin (1975) 13 Cal.3d 937, 944 [120 Cal.Rptr. 65, 533 P.2d 193].) Such reversal is required even when, as occurred here, the trial court’s reasons for the dismissal, though not stated in a minute order, are expressed in open court and recorded in a transcript of the proceeding. (People v. Superior Court (Romero), supra, at p. 531, citing the Court of Appeal’s decision in People v. Beasley (1970) 5 Cal.App.3d 617, 637 [85 Cal.Rptr. 501]; People v. Orin, supra, at p. 944, citing Beasley and also citing People v. Winters (1959) 171 Cal.App.2d Supp. 876, 881-882 [342 P.2d 538].)1
In this case, the Court of Appeal pointed out that strict adherence to this rule can be a waste of judicial time and resources, and it asked this court to reexamine the rule and to allow appellate courts to determine whether in a particular case noncompliance with section 1385 can be harmless error. My colleagues do not share those views. I do, as explained below.
I
Section 1385 was enacted by the Legislature in 1872. Back then, all but the most trivial of trial errors were presumed to be prejudicial, resulting in reversals of trial court judgments. (People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 834 [299 P.2d 243].) It is against this backdrop that one should examine the *155Court of Appeal’s oft-cited decision in People v. Disperati (1909) 11 Cal.App. 469, 416-411 [105 P. 617], which held that section 1385 imposed a mandatory duty on a trial court to state its dismissal reasons in a minute order, and that failure to do so required reversal of the judgment. This inflexible rule was reiterated in several decisions of the Courts of Appeal and this court, which does so again today. (Maj. opn., ante, at pp. 149-150.)
Whatever legal justifications may have existed for this automatic reversal rule at the time of the Court of Appeal’s decision in People v. Disperati, supra, 11 Cal.App. 469, those grounds no longer make sense. In 1911, just two years after the Disperati decision, California’s voters amended the state Constitution to preclude reversal in a criminal case for any error that was not prejudicial. (People v. O’Bryan (1913) 165 Cal. 55, 66 [130 P. 1042].) The amendment provided: “No judgment shall be set aside, or new trial granted in any criminal case . . . for error as to any matter of pleading or procedure, unless, after an examination of the entire cause including the evidence, the court shall be of the opinion that the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice.” (Cal. Const., former art. VI, § 4½, added Oct. 10, 1911, repealed Nov. 8, 1966.)2 Except for minor modifications, this harmless error provision of California’s Constitution has remained the same. (See Cal. Const., art. VI, § 13.) In holding that reversal is invariably required for a trial court’s noncompliance with section 1385—no matter that the dismissal reasons, though not stated in a minute order are, as here, recorded in the transcript of the proceeding—the majority pays no heed to California’s constitutional directive that a judgment may be set aside only if “the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice” (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 13).
The purposes for requiring a trial court to state its reasons for a dismissal are (1) to promote judicial accountability so as to protect the public interest in not allowing improper or corrupt dismissals (People v. Orin, supra, 13 Cal.3d at p. 944) and (2) to facilitate appellate review (People v. Superior Court (Romero), supra, 13 Cal.4th at p. 531). These goals are satisfied where, as here, the trial court’s dismissal reasons are fully set forth in the court reporter’s transcript of the proceeding, which is a public record that can be examined by any member of the public desiring to see it, as well as by the reviewing court on appeal from the trial court’s judgment. In these circumstances, the trial court’s failure to have a minute order reflect its dismissal reasons is insignificant and therefore harmless error.
*156As the Court of Appeal pointed out, to require automatic reversal in those cases in which the trial court’s reasons for dismissal are stated in the reporter’s transcript but not in the minute order will waste judicial time and resources. In those instances, automatic reversal requires further proceedings in the trial court and may lead to another appeal. In light of the majority’s continued adherence to the rule of automatic reversal for noncompliance with section 1385, the Legislature may want to reexamine the need for this inflexible rule that utterly ignores California’s constitutional directive that a judgment of a trial court can be set aside only if “the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice.” (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 13.)
II
Because of this court’s statements in People v. Superior Court (Romero), supra, 13 Cal.4th 497, and in People v. Orin, supra, 13 Cal.3d 937, that compliance with section 1385 is mandatory and that failure to comply is invariably reversible error, the Court of Appeal here followed that directive, as it had to (Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court (1962) 57 Cal.2d 450, 455 [20 Cal.Rptr. 321, 369 P.2d 937]), thus refraining from conducting a harmless error analysis. Hence the Court of Appeal did not determine whether the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the sentence enhancement allegations. I would remand this case to the Court of Appeal so it could perform such a review.

 In neither of these two decisions was this conclusion critical to the outcome. At issue in People v. Superior Court (Romero), supra, 13 Cal.4th at page 531, was whether a trial court has the power to dismiss a “strike” allegation under the “Three Strikes” law (§ 667, subds. (b)-(i)); tangential to that issue was this court’s observation that such a dismissal was subject to review on appeal and required automatic reversal if the reasons for the dismissal were not set forth in the trial court’s minutes. And People v. Orin, supra, 13 Cal.3d at page 944, is distinguishable because there this court was careful to note that the trial court’s reasons for its dismissal of the charges were not reflected in the record of the proceedings.

 Under federal law, automatic or per se reversal of a judgment is required only for “structural error,” that is, error—such as the denial of counsel, the denial of a jury, or the lack of an impartial judge—that cannot be assessed in the context of other evidence in order to determine whether the error was prejudicial. (E.g., Arizona v. Fulminante (1991) 499 U.S. 279, 307-308 [113 L.Ed.2d 302, 111 S.Ct. 1246]; People v. Allen (2008) 44 Cal.4th 843, 870 [80 Cal.Rptr.3d 183, 187 P.3d 1018].)