Court Opinion

ID: 9847340
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:58:04.478885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:07.507811
License: Public Domain

GRODIN, J., Concurring.
I would have no difficulty concurring in the judgment if it were not for article I, section 28, subdivision (f) (hereafter section 28(f)) of the California Constitution, which provides in part that prior felony convictions shall be used for purposes of enhancement of sentence “without limitation.” Unless we are to say that this provision has no meaning at all—an alternative which this court has strongly resisted in the past (see In re Lance W. (1985) 37 Cal.3d 873, 887 [210 Cal.Rptr. 631, 694 P.2d 744])—we must at least make an effort to come to grips with its meaning before we can say that it does not apply. This the majority opinion does not do.
In People v. Castro (1985) 38 Cal.3d 301 [211 Cal.Rptr. 719, 696 P.2d 111], we considered the “without limitation” clause of section 28(f) as it applies to impeachment of witnesses. A majority of this court held in that context that the clause was intended to remove certain limitations upon the exercise of trial court discretion which had been imposed by this court through “rigid, black letter rules of exclusion.” (38 Cal.3d at p. 312.) Some of us disputed that interpretation believing that the provision was intended to have a broader sweep (see cone. opn. of Grodin, J., 38 Cal.3d at p. 320), but there was no doubt among us—nor was there any reasonable *232room for doubt—as to the general category of “limitation” which the clause was designed to remove.
In the context of sentence enhancements, the “without limitation” language has no clear referent. Enhancement of sentences can occur only within a system of rules which prescribes what sorts of prior convictions are to be used for purposes of enhancement, and the criteria and procedure by which enhancements are to be computed in relation to the defendant and the crime he has committed. All of these criteria can be viewed both positively and negatively, i.e., as stating the conditions under which enhancement will or may occur, or as stating the circumstances under which they will not. A rule of law which provides that sentences will be enhanced on the basis of certain types of crimes, for example, carries with it the negative implication that enhancement will not occur on the basis of crimes outside the delineated category. Similarly, there is a negative aspect to a rule of law which prescribes the period within which prior crimes must have occurred in order to form the basis for enhancement or the types of crimes of which the defendant must be convicted currently in order that his sentence be enhanced. In the case of each of these criteria, the negative implication of the rule can be viewed as a “limitation” upon enhancement, yet the “limitation” exists only as the flip side of the rule’s “positive” aspect.
Thus, if it was the purpose of section 28(f) to restrict the power of the Legislature to establish criteria and procedures for sentence enhancements, it is difficult to understand what restriction was intended. Nothing in that subsection, or in the accompanying commentary of the Legislative Analyst, provides the slightest clue. One amicus, recognizing this problem, has suggested that the “without limitation” language of section 28(f) was intended to preclude limitations which are “external” to the enhancement statute, while preserving limitations which are “internal.” Such a distinction, however, quite apart from the fact that it finds no support in the language or history of the initiative, makes no sense. Why would the voters care whether the “limitation” imposed by the Legislature is contained in the same statute as the provision for enhancement, or in a different statute?
Nor can section 28(f) plausibly be viewed as a simple repeal of the holding in People v. Williams (1981) 30 Cal.3d 470, 482-483 [179 Cal.Rptr. 443, 637 P.2d 1039], to the effect that courts have discretion to strike enhancements under Penal Code section 1385. To utilize a constitutional amendment for the purpose of overturning a statutory interpretation, with the Legislature left free to restore that interpretation of its wishes, would be strange indeed. Moreover (and here I agree with the majority) the analysis in Williams itself precludes giving this initiative language that effect.
*233There is a meaning which can be ascribed to the “without limitation” language of section 28(f) which does not depend upon probing these mysterious depths. The section provides that “[a]ny prior felony conviction of any person in any criminal proceeding, whether adult or juvenile” is to be used “without limitation for purposes of impeachment or enhancement of sentence in any criminal proceeding.” At the very least, section 28(f) tells us that so far as the state Constitution is concerned there is no constitutional barrier to the enhancement of a sentence on the basis of certain juvenile proceedings. Whatever else it may mean (and I express no opinion as to whether it may mean something more), the section at least means that.
On the basis of this analysis I concur in the judgment.