Court Opinion

ID: 9629260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:39:37.754003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:35.205025
License: Public Domain

TOBRINER, J.
I concur in section 2 of Justice Richardson’s opinion, which concludes that defendant’s conviction must be reversed because of the failure of his trial counsel to render constitutionally adequate representation. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment reversing defendant’s conviction and granting the writ of habeas corpus.
Although three of my colleagues have deemed it appropriate to speak at this time to some of the constitutional questions presented by the 1977 death penalty statute, I join with the Chief Justice and Justices Mosk and Newman in abstaining from reaching those issues. In my view our court should await a case in which a defendant actually faces execution under the 1977 law before addressing the basic constitutional questions raised by that enactment. The awesome question of whether a defendant will live or die should be framed in concrete, not abstract, terms; the decision must be reached with the realization that it will result in the designed death of an individual man or woman who stands before the court. Therefore, I do not concur in any portion of section 5 of Justice Richardson’s opinion.