Court Opinion

ID: 9786021
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 23:45:31.966195+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:39.943617
License: Public Domain

MORENO, J., Concurring.
I concur in the opinion as narrowly written. As the majority states, it does not decide the issue of whether “the trial court, in the exercise of its discretion under [Penal Code] section 1385, properly may consider the evidence adduced at the preliminary hearing in the prior case. The record does not suggest that the trial court considered such evidence in striking one of defendant’s prior convictions in the present case, but rather considered only the fact of the magistrate’s ruling declining to hold defendant to answer. Accordingly, we need not comment upon the propriety of a *755trial court considering the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 753, fn. 2, italics added.)
I agree that the mere facts that the magistrate declined to hold defendant to answer in one of the prior convictions to which defendant eventually pleaded guilty, and that the trial court set aside the charge pursuant to Penal Code section 995, subdivision (a)(2), do not by themselves justify the dismissal of the strike under Penal Code section 1385. But in my view nothing forbids a court from considering the insufficiency of the underlying evidence to determine whether the magistrate and the trial court were correct in their rulings, and in then dismissing a strike on that basis.
As we stated in People v. Williams (1998) 17 Cal.4th 148, 161 [69 Cal.Rptr.2d 917, 948 P.2d 429]: “[I]n ruling whether to strike or vacate a prior serious and/or violent felony conviction allegation or finding under the Three Strikes law, on its own motion, ‘in furtherance of justice’ pursuant to Penal Code section 1385(a), or in reviewing such a ruling, the court in question must consider whether, in light of the nature and circumstances of his present felonies and prior serious and/or violent felony convictions, and the particulars of his background, character, and prospects, the defendant may be deemed outside the scheme’s spirit, in whole or in part, and hence should be treated as though he had not previously been convicted of one or more serious and/or violent felonies.” The fact that there was insufficient evidence to hold defendant to answer on one of the prior felony convictions is a relevant “circumstance of [a] defendant’s . . . prior serious and/or violent felony convictions.” (Ibid.) If there is indeed insufficient evidence as to one of the convictions to which a defendant pleaded guilty, that fact may well enter into the trial court’s assessment of defendant’s threat as a recidivist, and therefore whether the imposition of the permitted punishment under the “Three Strikes” law really serves the purpose of that law.
Such an examination of the evidence of the underlying offense is not an impermissible collateral attack on a plea agreement, because the plea, and the conviction, are unaffected by the trial court’s decision. (See People v. Garcia (1999) 20 Cal.4th 490, 499 [85 Cal.Rptr.2d 280, 976 P.2d 831].) Nor would a trial court considering such evidence be acting from considerations identified as improper in People v. Superior Court (Romero) (1996) 13 Cal.4th 497, 531 [53 Cal.Rptr.2d 789, 917 P.2d 628], i.e., “solely ‘to accommodate judicial convenience or because of court congestion.’ . . . [or] if ‘guided solely by a personal antipathy for the effect that the three strikes law would have on [a] defendant,’ while ignoring ‘defendant’s background,’ ‘the nature of his present offenses,’ and other ‘individualized considerations.’ ”
*756In short, the fact that there was insufficient evidence to hold a defendant to answer for an offense to which he eventually pleaded guilty has bearing on whether the defendant is in whole or in part outside the spirit of the Three Strikes law. A trial court should be able to consider this fact in determining whether to dismiss a strike under section 1385.