Court Opinion

ID: 9790644
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:56:47.64048+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:30.705854
License: Public Domain

FOURT, J.
I reluctantly concur:
This cause is one of the ever growing number of cases, arising particularly in Los Angeles County, where the trial judge, in the face of a certified copy óf a prison record of the defendant showing that the defendant was convicted of a felony and served a term in prison therefor, and a sworn admission on the part of the defendant that he or she was previously convicted of a felony and served a term in prison therefor as charged in the information, either finds the prior conviction to be not true or strikes the same and sentences the defendant as a first offender.
In this case in the first instance the judge found “the defendant guilty of the charge, with a good prior.” Counsel for the defendant then asked the judge to withhold decision on the matter of the prior, and asked “leave to file a written application for probation.”
At the time of hearing the report of the probation officer and pronouncement of judgment, counsel for the defendant represented to the court that the defendant was sick and that she had lost a part of one finger in an automobile accident, and further that the amount of heroin found in her possession was only a small amount, namely two grains, and therefore the court should dismiss the prior conviction of sale of heroin and give her probation.
The defendant, in a letter to the court, indicated, with reference to her health, that if granted probation she intended to start a restaurant and eating place. A doctor who had examined the defendant wrote a letter dated May 20, 1957, in her behalf to the effect that insofar as her hand or finger was concerned she would have full use thereof in three months.
The court, upon the urging of defendant’s counsel, thereupon stated, “The court will dismiss the prior, strike the prior in the interest of justice, ’ ’ and then denied the application for probation and sentenced the defendant to the state *393prison, not as a recidivist, which she was, but as a first offender.
The record before the judge at the time of sentencing disclosed that in 1950 the defendant was charged with a violation of section 11500, Health and Safety Code, and pleaded guilty thereto, and was sentenced to the county jail for one year, and that the sentence was then suspended and she was put on probation for three years and fined $100. The probation so granted was ultimately revoked because of the defendant’s involvement in other later narcotic offenses, and the sentence which was then imposed ran concurrently with the sentence imposed in a federal court. In 1953, in the United States District Court in Los Angeles County, she was charged in Count I with concealing five grains of heroin, in Count II with selling eight grains of heroin, and in Count III with selling 12 grains of heroin. She entered a plea of guilty to the first two counts, and the third count was dismissed. She was then sentenced to serve three years in the federal prison. Her parole expired July 13, 1956. She was arrested on the present charge October 10, 1956, and as heretofore set forth, was then charged with but one prior conviction.
The officer testified: “I received information that this defendant, who was known to me as Eleanora Glover, had recently moved to this address at 1622 Ridgely Drive, and she was peddling heroin out of the house. On this date of the arrest I received a call approximately an hour before I went there, informing me that she had heroin in her possession at that time.” The defendant stated to the officer, “. . . I sniff a little bit and there is a little bit in that paper and that is all I have. ’ ’
The husband of the defendant admitted to the use of narcotics, but stated that he was “not hooked yet.” The fact of the matter is that he had theretofore been sentenced to the state prison for involvement in narcotics offenses and had just been released from jail in Alameda County on October 10, 1956, after serving 90 days as an addict.
The record further disclosed that the defendant had previously worked as a housemaid and the husband as a painter, yet they lived in an $18,500 house and owned other property of the value of about $15,000, and she had a substantial sum of money in her purse at the time of her arrest.
As I view it, the defendant, first of all, was not eligible for probation (Pen. Code, § 1203; Health & Saf. Code, *394§ 11715.6), and no useful purpose could have been served by permitting her, as an ineligible defendant, to apply for probation. Secondly, the Health and Safety Code specifically sets forth (§ 11712) :
“[Imprisonment in county jail or State prison.] Any person convicted under this division for having in possession any narcotic, or of violating the provisions of Section 11530 or 11557 shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison for not more than 10 years.
“[Effect of prior conviction.] If such a person has been previously convicted of any offense described in this division or has been previously convicted of any offense under the laws of any other state or of the United States which if committed in this State would have been punishable as an offense described in this division, the previous conviction shall be charged in the indictment or information and if found to be true by the jury, upon a jury trial, or if found to be true by the court, upon a court trial, or is admitted by the defendant, he shall be imprisoned in the state prison for not less than two years nor more than 20 years.”
The defendant in this case clearly demonstrated by her conduct that she and her husband used narcotics, and that she, from time to time, was engaged in the sale thereof. Less than three months had expired from the federal parole to the date of her present arrest. In other words, she was barely out of one transaction until she was into another.
It appears to me that to state that it is in the interests of justice to strike a prior conviction under such circumstances is to distort the language to the breaking point. No good purpose is served by treating recidivist narcotic offenders as anything other than just what they are. To grant their requests for lighter punishment in the face of a legislative determination and mandate to the contrary (1) aids in the further sale and use of illicit narcotics, (2) adds to the burdens of those whose duty it is to ferret out persons engaged in the illicit narcotics traffic, and (3) brings the administration of justice into disrepute.
Among other things, such a course of conduct makes for maladministration in the prisons, because it brings about a situation in which two inmates with identical records and identical offenses are treated entirely differently.
If every person is to be rendered his or her due, the courts *395should measure and stand up to their responsibilities and render true justice.
It further appears to me that society as a whole should be considered in such matters. Any sentimentality brought into play in favor of a defendant ought to be measured against the anguish and disgrace brought to the users who secured their heroin from the defendant.
In my opinion, it is not “in the interest of justice” to treat a repeating narcotic violator as a first offender. It was once appropriately said, “There can be no greater injustice than to treat unequal things equally.”