Court Opinion

ID: 9631578
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:43:38.723988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:26:04.338820
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
It is my opinion that the minor here involved was deprived of due process of law because of lack of counsel in the juvenile court proceedings.
Defendant was accused of a serious felony ■ he was remanded to the juvenile court because of his age. In the juvenile court, the only question determined, so far as the record shows, is whether or not defendant was a fit subject for the consideration of that court. Since he was undoubtedly a minor, he was within that court’s jurisdiction if that court, in the exercise of its discretion, saw fit to retain its jurisdiction over him. It cannot be denied that defendant’s future would have been an entirely different matter had the juvenile court retained jurisdiction rather than remanding him to the superior court for trial on the felony charges. If defendant had been provided with counsel at that time so that he could have defended himself on the issue then involved, it is very probable that the outcome would have been different. The California Constitution (art. I, § 13) provides that in criminal prosecutions “in any court whatever” the party accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person and with counsel. It has been said, and is said again here in the majority opinion, that proceedings in the juvenile court are not criminal in nature even though the charge is a criminal one. It appears to me that when the charge is a criminal one, and particularly when it is as serious as the one involved here, the proceedings should be considered criminal in nature and the accused be accorded all the safeguards intended for his protection. In In re Contreras, 109 Cal.App.2d 787, 789 [241 P.2d 631], it was said: “While the juvenile court law provides that adjudication of a minor to be a ward of the court shall not be deemed to be a conviction of crime, nevertheless, for all practical purposes, this is a legal fiction, presenting a challenge to credulity and doing violence to reason. Courts cannot and will not shut their eyes and ears *900to everyday contemporary happenings. ’ ’ It was also said (at p. 790) : “Surely, a minor charged in the juvenile court with acts denounced by law as a felony does not have lesser constitutional, statutory rights or guarantees than are afforded an adult under similar circumstances in the superior court. ... In practically all of the cases affecting juvenile court proceedings that have come to our attention, the minor has admitted the charge lodged against him and the only problem presented to the court was how to best guide and control the minor with a view to his rehabilitation and further development. In the case at bar however, the minor emphatically and at all times denied his alleged delinquency. Under such circumstances his liberty should not be taken from his [sic] until his guilt of the charges judged against him was established by legal evidence. That however praiseworthy, according to the viewpoint of the individual, may be the motives of the juvenile court, that tribunal may not impinge upon the legal rights of one brought before it is emphatically set forth in In re Tahbel, 46 Cal.App. 755, 760, 761, 762, 763 [189 P. 804]; in In re Hill, supra, pp. 26, 27, 28 [78 Cal.App. 23 (247 P. 591)]; and in In re Rauch, 103 Cal.App.2d 690, 698 [230 P.2d 115]. In the final analysis the juvenile court is a judicial institution.” (Emphasis added.) In In re Poff, 135 F.Supp. 224, 227, the Contreras ease was approved, and it was held that the legislative intent was to enlarge, not to diminish the constitutional protections afforded a minor. The court there concluded: “I hold only that where a child commits an act, which act if committed by an adult would constitute a crime, then due process in the Juvenile Court requires that the child be advised that he is entitled to the effective assistance of counsel, and this is so even though the Juvenile Court in making dispositions of delinquent children is not a criminal court.”
In the majority opinion it is said that there is nothing in the present record to show that the minor defendant here was deprived of his rights or dénied due process of law. When the gravity of the charge is taken into consideration, it seems to me that the lack of counsel to advise defendant was a deprivation of due process in the juvenile court proceedings which are judicial proceedings.
I would therefore reverse the judgment.