Court Opinion

ID: 9624620
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:11:50.509288+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:51.563480
License: Public Domain

*466PETERS, J.
I dissent. This case presents the question of the impact of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 87 S.Ct. 1428], upon the concepts that juvenile court proceedings are not criminal and are non-adversary, concepts embodied in our statutes and decisions which predated Gault. Whatever may be said of that decision, and there are many divergent interpretations of it, it stands for the proposition that a minor must be afforded the same rights granted a defendant in a criminal case unless there are compelling reasons why such rights should not be granted, and that state decisions and statutes providing to the contrary are violative of the United States Constitution. This fundamental lesson of the Gault decision is disregarded by the majority. Certainly the right to a jury trial and the right to insist that guilt be shown beyond a reasonable doubt are fundamental and constitutional rights in a criminal case. This the majority concede. But the majority contend that the determination that the minor shall be a ward of the court is not criminal in nature. The majority spend 19 pages of lengthy discussion that does no more than confuse the issue. It urges that in juvenile proceedings these rights are not fundamental. Certainly to the minor the proceedings are adversary and criminal in nature. The determination that the minor shall be a ward of the court may result in the confinement of the minor during minority and complete restriction on his freedom of action. Realistically, a proceeding that may result in such confinement and restraint is adversary in nature and criminal in effect. To hold that such a proceeding is not adversary in nature and criminal in effect is to close one’s eyes to the realities of the situation, and, as well, is contrary to the teachings of Gault.
There is also involved a highly debatable Miranda issue. In People v. Lara, 67 Cal.2d 365 [62 Cal.Rptr. 586, 432 P.2d 202], the majority of this court held that a waiver of a minor’s constitutional rights should not be measured by the same rule applicable to adults but must be measured by the “totality of circumstances.’’ Here the record shows the police read to the minor the Miranda warnings from a card. To hold that after the mere reading and parroting of the Miranda rights a confession constitutes a knowing waiver of constitutional rights without the advice of a parent, adult or lawyer is to simply disregard the limitations on the waiver rule announced in Lara so far as minors are concerned.
I would reverse the judgment.