Court Opinion

ID: 9719266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:46:58.466566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:05.585383
License: Public Domain

FLEMING, Acting P. J. —
I dissent.
The problem arises as a result of contemporaneous judicial rulings which gave diametrically opposed answers to the identical question: Was *873defendant mentally competent to stand trial in March 1977? Yes, answered Judge Donnellan on March 17. No, answered Judge Dibbs on March 25. The answers of both judges were given as formal judicial rulings in proceedings under Penal Code section 1368 pending at the same time in different departments of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Which department of the superior court are we to believe?
Penal Code section 1368 requires a hearing when evidence which casts doubt on a defendant’s present mental competency is presented to the court. (People v. Pennington (1967) 66 Cal.2d 508, 518-520 [58 Cal.Rptr. 374, 426 P.2d 942]; People v. Melissakis (1976) 56 Cal.App.3d 52, 62 [128 Cal.Rptr. 122].) This requirement is constitutionally mandated to insure defendant a fair trial. (Pate v. Robinson (1966) 383 U.S. 375, 385 [15 L.Ed.2d 815, 822, 86 S.Ct. 836]; People v. Pennington, supra; cf. People v. Tomas (1977) 74 Cal.App.3d 75, 87-92 [141 Cal.Rptr. 453].) Clearly, the existence of diametrically opposed judicial rulings on defendant’s mental competency to stand trial in March 1977 casts a reasonable doubt on defendant’s then mental competency, a doubt which the superior court in this cause should have, but did not, formally resolve and one which this court is unable to resolve. In my view the issue of defendant’s competency to stand trial requires reconsideration on its merits.
I would, therefore, cut the Gordian knot of procedural niceties, reverse the judgment, and remand the cause to the trial court with directions to determine defendant’s present competency to stand trial and retry him if found competent.
A petition for a rehearing was deniéd June 27, 1978, and appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied August 10, 1978.