Court Opinion

ID: 9789384
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:35:48.538737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:22.203507
License: Public Domain

LUCAS, J.
I concur in the judgment, but only under the compulsion of People v. Castro (1985) 38 Cal.3d 301 [211 Cal.Rptr. 719, 696 P.2d 111], a case in which I dissented. (See id. at p. 322.) The majority’s complicated review and remand procedure would be entirely unnecessary if in Castro we had followed the clear intent underlying Proposition 8 and held that all prior convictions are admissible “without limitation” for impeachment purposes.
Nonetheless, given Castro’s holding, the majority’s present remand procedure appears a satisfactory way to determine whether any prejudicial error has occurred. Certainly, such a remand is preferable to a rule of per se reversal for Castro error. In addition, with respect to future cases, I fully concur with part I of the majority opinion which adopts the rule of Luce v. United States (1984) 469 U.S. 38 [83 L.Ed.2d 443, 104 S.Ct. 460], that denial of a motion to exclude a prior conviction is not reviewable on appeal unless the defendant took the stand to testify in his defense.