Court Opinion

ID: 9796277
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:53:30.783927+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:49:39.786065
License: Public Domain

KENNARD, J.
I dissent.
The majority holds that the Legislature has not, by the 1997 amendment to Penal Code section 1025, eliminated a criminal defendant’s long-established statutory right to jury trial on a prior conviction allegation, but it also holds that the complete denial of that jury trial right may be, and here was, harmless error.
I disagree that denial of an accused’s right to jury trial—whether the right’s source is statutory or constitutional—may ever be harmless. As I explained in my dissenting opinion in People v. Vera (1997) 15 Cal.4th 269, 282-286 [62 Cal.Rptr.2d 754, 934 P.2d 1279] (dis. opn. of Kennard, J.), “[t]he denial of jury trial is a structural error that can never be harmless, no matter how strong the evidence of guilt.” (Id. at p. 286; see also People v. Kelii (1999) 21 Cal.4th 452, 463 [87 Cal.Rptr.2d 674, 981 P.2d 518] (dis. opn. of Kennard, J.).) Because the Court of Appeal here correctly so held, I would affirm the Court of Appeal’s judgment.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied May 16, 2001. Mosk, J., and Kennard, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.