Court Opinion

ID: 9545079
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:05:37.633358+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:03.482552
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
-I dissent.
There were discrepancies in the stories of the prosecutrix. There were discrepancies in the several stories of defendants. Out of this cacophony the jury arrived at a verdict, which is probably as close to ascertainment of the truth as can be expected in considering the conduct of the participants, all apparently of dubious character.
The majority finds error in admission of defendant’s extrajudicial statement. I find it to have been an attempt at exculpation, not a confession. The majority finds it “reasonably probable” (People v. Watson, 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [299 P.2d 243]) that a result more favorable to defendant would have been reached absent the statement, and reasonably possible that,the evidence contributed to the conviction (Fahy v. Connecticut, 375 U.S. 85, 86-87 [84 S.Ct. 229, 11 L.Ed.2d 171].) I find it neither probable nor possible that the result would have been different if the statement had been excluded in view of all the evidence.
Like the adversary proceedings at the trial, the foregoing conflicts between conclusions of the majority and those I reach are essentially factual. There being no miscarriage of justice, no justification exists for this court to substitute its concept of the evidence for that of the trial jury. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 4½.)
I would affirm the judgment.
McComb, J., and Burke, J., concurred.