Court Opinion

ID: 9789441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:36:27.216839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:22.471139
License: Public Domain

PANELLI, J., Dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I agree with the majority’s conclusion “that the offense of shooting at an occupied vehicle is not, by its nature, exempt from the possible application of subdivision (c)(23) and (c)(8).” However, unlike the majority, I believe the minimum elements of the offense of shooting at an occupied vehicle (Pen. Code, § 2461) necessarily make the offense a “serious felony” for the purpose of sections 667 and 1192.7, subdivision (c). In my view, whether the defendant personally used the firearm or was an accomplice to its use is irrelevant as far as subdivision (c)(8) of section 1192.7 is concerned. The majority, on the other hand, holds that the offense described in section 246 can be a serious felony only if personal use of a firearm has been alleged and proved.
Subdivision (c)(8), in part, defines a serious felony as “any felony in which the defendant uses a firearm.” I am unable to read the provision to require personal use of a firearm. This is especially true in view of subdivision (c)(23) of the same section which defines as a serious felony one “in which the defendant personally used a dangerous or deadly weapon.” (Italics added.) The language is unambiguous; it needs no construction in order to understand its plain meaning. “It is a settled principle in California law that ‘When statutory language is thus clear and unambiguous there is *479no need for construction and courts should not indulge in it.’ (Solberg v. Superior Court (1977) 19 Cal.3d 182, 198 [137 Cal.Rptr. 460, 561 P.2d 1148].)” (In re Waters of Long Valley Creek Stream System (1979) 25 Cal.3d 339, 348 [158 Cal.Rptr. 350, 599 P.2d 656].) Obviously a firearm is both a firearm and a dangerous and deadly weapon. If subdivision (c)(8) is construed to require personal use as does subdivision (c)(23), then subdivision (c)(8) is totally useless and superfluous in defining a serious felony. It is not reasonable or logical for the electorate to specify personal use in the case of a deadly weapon and then in another subdivision of the same section, to omit the word “personal” unless the omission was intended to mean something and have some real effect. The construction given to (c)(8) by the majority does violence to the fundamental principle of statutory construction that an interpretation making some words surplusage is to be avoided. (People v. Gilbert (1969) 1 Cal.3d 475, 480 [82 Cal.Rptr. 724, 462 P.2d 580]; see also People v. Arwood (1985) 165 Cal.App.3d 167, 173 [211 Cal.Rptr. 307].)
The majority relies on People v. Walker (1976) 18 Cal.3d 232 [133 Cal.Rptr. 520, 555 P.2d 306] as the basis for the holding that the word “use” in subdivision (c)(8) is to be construed as requiring a showing of personal use. However, I believe Walker is inapposite. There the question was whether former section 12022.5—which authorized an additional five-year sentence for “any person who uses a firearm in the commission of [specified offenses]”—should be interpreted to apply only to those defendants who personally used a firearm. Stating that “the rules which make an accused derivatively liable for a crime which he does not personally commit, do not at the same time impose a derivatively increased punishment by reason of the manner in which a confederate commits the crime” (id., at p. 242), we held that section 12022.5 should be interpreted to apply only to defendants who personally used a firearm. (Id., at pp. 241-242.)
Whatever the merit of the Walker holding in the context of the sentence enhancement statute there at issue, the stated limitation on derivative liability can have no application here, where if the offense is committed at all, its “manner” of commission—involving the use of a firearm—is the same whether the defendant is the actor who personally used the firearm or is an aider or abettor. The use enhancement under consideration in Walker seeks to punish the offender who commits the base offense in a more violent or dangerous manner, while section 1192.7, subdivision (c) seeks to define those crimes and that conduct which the electorate considered particularly dangerous to society. Sections 667 and 1192.7, subdivision (c) have as their goal deterrence of repeat offenders. The purpose of these sections was to deter recidivism as to certain crimes, the commission of which was considered “serious.” Subdivision (c) of section 1192.7 simply defines those crimes and that conduct which fall under the “serious” category.
*480We recognized this purpose in People v. Equarte, ante, page 456 [229 Cal.Rptr. 116, 722 P.2d 890], when we discussed subdivision (c)(23) and determined that the provisions of sections 667 and 1192.7, subdivision (c)(23) did not enhance a defendant’s sentence simply because he personally used a dangerous or deadly weapon. As stated in Equarte, “personal use of such a weapon simply places the defendant in the category of serious offenders who may have their sentence increased if they have previously been convicted of another serious felony.” (Id., at p. 464.)
Here, too, defendant’s sentence is not enhanced simply by the use of a firearm in the prior offense; rather his prior conviction of an offense, the minimum elements of which include use of a firearm, places him in a category of offenders who may have their current sentence increased if the current offense is another serious felony.
The drafters of sections 667 and 1192.7 manifested an intention to impose harsher sentences on those offenders who more than once committed violent crimes or engaged in criminal conduct so dangerous that it was perceived to “call for enhanced punishment equivalent to that imposed upon violent recidivists.” (People v. Jackson (1985) 37 Cal.3d 826, 832 [210 Cal.Rptr. 623, 694 P.2d 736].) In enacting sections 667 and 1192.7, the electorate was entitled to conclude, as it evidently did, that firearm use poses a greater threat to public safety than does use of other dangerous and deadly weapons. It is not unreasonable to classify as “serious” a crime in which a defendant, either personally or as an aider and abettor, “uses” a firearm, while also limiting the “serious” classification to those crimes (not otherwise included) where the defendant “personally used” a dangerous or deadly weapon which is not a firearm.
The statute on its face plainly distinguishes between “use” and “personal use.” The electorate viewed defendants convicted of offenses involving use of a firearm sufficiently dangerous to be subjected to the harsher sentencing scheme directed at repeat offenders. Under the guise of statutory construction where none is needed, the majority thwarts the manifest intent of the people, and in the process, nullifies the firearm-use provision of subdivision (c)(8). I would affirm.
Mosk, J., and Lucas, J., concurred.

Penal Code section 246 reads in pertinent part as follows: “Any person who shall maliciously and wilfully discharge a firearm at an . . . occupied motor vehicle . . . shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three or four years, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a term of not less than six months and not exceeding one year.”
All further statutory references are to the Penal Code.