Court Opinion

ID: 9610708
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:46:11.418521+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:03.878682
License: Public Domain

*734YORK, Dissenting.
I dissent. I cannot agree with the foregoing opinion of this court by reason of the provisions of section 4y2 of article VI of the Constitution which provides :
“No judgment shall be set aside, or new trial granted, in any case, on the ground of misdirection of the jury, or of the improper admission or rejection of evidence, or for any error as to any matter of pleading, or for any error as to any matter of procedure, unless, after an examination of the entire cause, including the evidence, the court shall be of the opinion that the error complained of has resulted in a miscarriage of justice.”
Although I agree that the conduct of the district attorney was reprehensible and highly improper, nevertheless, the manner in which appellant answered his questions permitted him to improperly get before the jury evidence which mitigated the damage done. The trial court of its own motion should have instructed the jury to disregard a great many of the remarks of the district attorney which remarks were inserted in the questions put to the appellant.
The district attorney knew it was improper to ask the witness a question in the following form: “Q. You served 22 months and were paroled and then skipped your parole and came to California, didn’t you?” However, the reason this question is insufficient in this particular case upon which to base a reversal of the judgment, and the reason it comes within the saving grace of the constitutional provision herein-before quoted, is because of the answer given by appellant to a question just previously asked of him, to wit: “A. I was convicted, served 22 months and was later cleared of the charge and released.” This was then followed by appellant’s answer to the question heretofore quoted, to wit: “A. I served 22 months and was paroled pending pardon and I left for here after I had stayed there 13 months and served out my parole.” (Italics added.) The district attorney then asked: “You never got the pardon, did you?”, to which appellant answered: “Because I have never gone back for it.” Then followed the question which was highly improper, but which appellant by his reference to having been “cleared of the charge” goaded the prosecuting officer into asking: “Do you know that the warden of the penal institution in which you served 22 years would be glad to have you come *735back there?” The witness answered: “22 months, you mean.” The district attorney then asked: “You owe six months more there on your present sentence, don’t you?”, to which appellant replied: “Not to my knowledge, and I doubt it very much.”
If direct answers had been made by appellant to the questions propounded by the prosecuting officer, I would agree with my associates as to a reversal, but I believe this case comes within that class of cases which the above quoted constitutional provision was adopted to cover, as the answers of appellant more than offset any prejudice that might have been created by the prosecuting officer’s method of improperly questioning the appellant.
The main opinion states in abbreviated form the evidence against appellant. After an examination of the entire record, including all of the evidence, I am of the opinion that there was no miscarriage of justice in the conviction of the appellant. In fact, I believe it is an almost complete demonstration of guilt.
Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied June 6, 1941.