Court Opinion

ID: 9943783
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-26 14:37:04.788848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:44:49.811585
License: Public Domain

For sometime I have been concerned with the increasing rate of robberies being committed in the privacy of the home and the lack of an adequate sanction for this particularly outrageous crime.
The courts have been zealous in protecting the sanctity of the home from governmental intrusion and some of our finest judicial prose is to be found in our pursuit of that commendable ambition. ("An intrusion by the state into the privacy of the home for any purpose is one of the most awesome incursions of police into the life of the individual." (People v. Ramey (1976) 16 Cal.3d 263, 275 [127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 545 P.2d 1333].) "The courts have implicitly recognized that man requires some sanctuary [the home] in which his freedom to escape the intrusions of society is all but absolute." (People v. Dumas (1973) 9 Cal.3d 871, 882 [109 Cal.Rptr. 304, 512 P.2d 1208].)) It appears to me that society should exert no less effort in protecting the sanctity of the home from armed robbers.
There is nothing very funny about robbery in any setting, but it is particularly disturbing to find these predators plying their trade in residential areas.1 Footpads have always lurked on our streets and highways and among our first recognized robbers were highwaymen. Also, in this imperfect society, businesses handling cash must also face the reality of robbery. Thus, when I leave my home, I face the possibility of a robbery. But when a robber invades the sanctity of my home, the outrage is all but absolute. When the robbers enter the home, as they did in this case, severe penalties must be imposed. *Page 891 
When robbers enter the home, the scene is all too often set for other and more dreadful crimes such as that committed on Mrs. H. in this case. In the home, the victims are particularly weak and vulnerable and the robber is correspondingly secure. The result is all too often the infliction of other crimes on the helpless victim. Rapes consummated during the robbery of a bank or supermarket appear to be a rarity, but rapes in the course of a residential robbery occur with depressing frequency.
Therefore, I suggest to the Attorney General, as the chief law enforcement officer of this state, that he make as part of his current legislative program severe and heavy penalties for residential robbers.
It is true that a residential robber usually commits two felonies — burglary and robbery. However, under Penal Code section 654, he usually cannot be punished for both.2 I suggest the Legislature enact a provision such as Penal Code section 211a which assesses a special enhancement punishment to robbers of taxi or bus drivers. I suggest a section 211b which would provide severe penalties for those who commit residential robberies. The Legislature has, in section 462, provided for modest increases in the sanctions for residential burglary. It appears to me that the residential robber deserves no less. Perhaps the knowledge that long-prison terms loom for the residential robber may deter such practices and render the home a little less vulnerable to this type of outrage than it is at present.
Kaufman, J., and McDaniel, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing was denied April 6, 1981, and appellant's petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied May 21, 1981.
1 By the traditional residential areas, I do not mean to restrict my remarks to single family residences on an elm shaded street. I mean a home — a place of residence — a house, an apartment, a hotel room, a motor home — be it ever so humble. I mean the place where, when I close the door I shut out the rest of the world and wallow in privacy.
2 Under the Indeterminate Sentence Law, this was somewhat academic with the sentence for robbery being five years to life. *Page 892