Court Opinion

ID: 9848577
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:22:46.694343+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:25.546782
License: Public Domain

CLARK, J.
While I concur in the majority opinion insofar as it affirms the judgment, I dissent from modifying it to provide that defendant’s term may not exceed 14 years. The majority does not hold life imprisonment a cruel punishment for assault with a deadly weapon (Pen. Code, § 245). Nor does the majority find the punishment so disproportionate to the crime as to be unusual. Rather, it holds the punishment unusual as applied in the circumstances of this case simply because assault with a deadly weapon was charged as an offense included within assault with intent to commit murder (Pen. Code, § 217). I cannot agree. It is of no constitutional significance whether violation of section 245 is charged as a separate count or as an included offense.
Defining an unusual punishment as “a punishment that in the ordinary course of events is not inflicted,” the majority holds fife imprisonment unusual in the circumstances of this case on the ground “an accused is not normally subject to an increased maximum prison term as a consequence of, inter alia, exercising his constitutional rights and successfully defending against the crime charged.” (Ante, p. 560; italics in the original.)
Characterizing the punishment imposed here as unusual is an oblique expression of a concern that charging violations of sections 217 and 245 in one count has a “chilling effect” on the assertion of constitutional rights, i.e., the defendant is encouraged to plead guilty to assault with intent to commit murder—thereby waiving his privilege against self-incrimination and his rights to jury trial and confrontation of adverse witnesses—to avoid the greater maximum penalty resulting from conviction of assault with a deadly weapon.1
*563The leading case associated with the chilling effect doctrine is United States v. Jackson (1968) 390 U.S. 570 [20 L.Ed.2d 138, 88 S.Ct. 1209], which considered the constitutionality of the provision in the Federal Kidnaping Act (18 U.S.C. § 1201(a)) that the death penalty could be imposed only by a jury. “The inevitable effect of [exposing only those who assert the right to contest their guilt before a jury to the risk of the death penalty],” the Supreme Court held, “is, of course, to discourage assertion of the Fifth Amendment right not to plead guilty and to deter exercise of the Sixth Amendment right to demand a jury trial.” (390 U.S. at p. 581 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 147].)
Rejecting the government’s argument that the statute’s chilling effect was merely incidental to its objective of making the death penalty discretionary with the jury, the court stated: “The question is not whether the chilling effect is ‘incidental’ rather than intentional; the question is whether that effect is unnecessary and therefore excessive.” (390 U.S. at p. 582 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 147]; italics added.) The chilling effect of the act was unnecessary, the court held, because the goal of limiting the death penalty to cases in which the jury recommends it could be achieved without penalizing those defendants who might plead not guilty and demand jury trial. For example, the choice between life imprisonment and capital punishment could be left to a jury in every case, regardless of how the defendant’s guilt is determined. (390 U.S. at p. 582.)
By emphasizing “[t]he People are still free to charge violations of sections 217 and 245 in separate counts” {ante, p. 561), the majority implies the chilling effect of charging violation of section 245 as an offense included within section 217 is unnecessary because it could be avoided by charging the crimes in separate counts. The chilling effect persists, however, whether violations of those sections are charged separately or inclusively. It is inherent in the fact section 245 provides for a greater maximum punishment than section 217.
If the crimes are charged in separate counts and the People offer to dismiss the assault with a deadly weapon charge in return for a guilty plea to assault with intent to commit murder, a conventional plea bargain offer, the defendant has the same inducement to thereby waive his constitutional rights Schueren had. The majority does not suggest a defendant who rejects such an offer is constitutionally entitled to a maximum term of not more *564than 14 years if he is found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon, or that such an offer unnecessarily chills assertion of constitutional rights. The only distinction between this case and the hypothetical case is that when violation of section 245 is charged as an offense included within section 217 the offer to accept a guilty plea to the latter is built into the accusatory pleading, a distinction' without constitutional significance. Since it is the penalty differential which encourages guilty pleas in either case and. the penalties were prescribed by the Legislature, the chilling effect cannot be deemed “unnecessary” if proper deference is given to legislative authority, for the Legislature has the “broadest discretion possible in enacting penal statutes and in specifying punishment for crime. . . .” (In re Lynch (1972) 8 Cal.3d 410, 414 [105 Cal.Rptr. 217, 503 P.2d 921]; People v. Anderson (1972) 6 Cal.3d 628, 640 [100 Cal.Rptr. 152, 493 P.2d 880].)
Moreover, if punishment not inflicted in the ordinary course of events is unusual, the majority has created such punishment where none existed before. Prior to this decision all defendants convicted of violating section 245 were subject to a maximum term of life imprisonment. Defendants charged in separate counts will continue to be subject to such punishment. Only those defendants charged in an accusatory pleading drafted in ignorance of this decsion will have the benefit of the unusually lenient penalty provided by it.
I would affirm the judgment without modification.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied January 23, 1974. Clark, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

Parenthetically, it is questionable whether charging violation of section 245 as an offense included within section 217 actually chills the assertion of constitutional rights to any significant degree since defendant pleaded not guilty, as did similarly situated defendants in, e.g., People v. Robinson (1970) 6 Cal.App.3d 448 [86 Cal.Rptr. 56], People v. Jennings (1972) 22 Cal.App.3d 945 [99 Cal.Rptr. 739], People v. Gonzalez *563(1972) 28 Cal.App.3d 1091 [104 Cal.Rptr. 530], and three cases pending in this court: People v. Draper (Crim. No. 16750, hg. granted 14 Feb. 1973); People v. Bulgren (Crim. No. 16739, hg. granted 8 Feb. 1973); and People v. Roberts (Crim. No. 16776, hg. granted 28 Feb. 1973).