Court Opinion

ID: 9747893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:41:14.065858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:27.999341
License: Public Domain

RUSHING, P. J.
I respectfully dissent. Because the defendant did not have the right to a trial by jury in the juvenile court proceeding, I would find that the use of defendant’s prior juvenile adjudication to increase defendant’s sentence under the “Three Strikes” law violates the United States Supreme Court decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) 530 U.S. 466 [147 L.Ed.2d 435, 120 S.Ct. 2348].
An examination of Apprendi v. New Jersey, supra, 530 U.S. 466, and related Supreme Court decisions supports this result. In Apprendi, the United States Supreme Court held that “[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Id. at p. 490.) The “narrow” prior conviction exception stems from the view that “there is a vast difference between accepting the validity of a prior judgment of conviction entered in a proceeding in which the defendant had the right to a jury trial and the right to require the prosecutor to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and allowing the judge to find the required fact under a lesser standard of proof.” (Id. at pp. 490, 496.)
In reaching its result, Apprendi distinguished Almendarez-Torres v. United States (1998) 523 U.S. 224 [140 L.Ed.2d 350, 118 S.Ct. 1219], where the United States Supreme Court upheld a federal law allowing a judge to enhance a defendant’s sentence based upon prior convictions not alleged in the indictment. The Almendarez-Torres defendant “admitted the three earlier convictions for aggravated felonies—all of which had been entered pursuant to proceedings with substantial procedural safeguards of their own—no question concerning the right to a jury trial or the standard of proof that would apply to a contested issue of fact was before the Court.” (Apprendi v. New Jersey, supra, 530 U.S. at p. 488.) Recognizing this difference, the United States Supreme Court in Apprendi explained, “Both the certainty that procedural safeguards attached to any ‘fact’ of prior conviction, and the reality that Almendarez-Torres did not challenge the accuracy of that ‘fact’ in his case, mitigated the due process and Sixth Amendment concerns otherwise *1320implicated in allowing a judge to determine a ‘fact’ increasing punishment beyond the maximum statutory range.” (Ibid., fn. omitted.)
These procedural safeguard concerns were also raised in Jones v. United States (1999) 526 U.S. 227 [143 L.Ed.2d 311, 119 S.Ct. 1215], where the Supreme Court emphasized that the fact of a prior conviction was constitutionally distinct from other sentence enhancing facts, so that it was permissible to use prior convictions to increase the penalty for an offense without treating them as an element of the current offense: “One basis for that possible constitutional distinctiveness [of prior convictions] is not hard to see: unlike virtually any other consideration used to enlarge the possible penalty for an offense, ... a prior conviction must itself have been established through procedures satisfying the fair notice, reasonable doubt, and jury trial guarantees.” (Id. at p. 249.)
Drawing on the Apprendi, Almendarez-Torres and Jones decisions, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Tighe (9th Cir. 2001) 266 F.3d 1187 recently held that a defendant’s prior conviction can be used to enhance a defendant’s sentence only if the defendant had a right to a jury trial in the proceeding where he was found guilty of the earlier offense. According to Tighe, prior juvenile adjudications may not be used to enhance a defendant’s sentence because the juvenile proceedings did not afford the defendant the right to a jury trial. (Id. at pp. 1193-1195.) For these reasons, the court reversed the defendant’s sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act, which mandated a minimum 15-year sentence for a defendant with three prior violent or serious drug convictions and who is later found guilty of possessing a firearm. The Ninth Circuit reversed because one of the defendant’s three priors was a juvenile adjudication in which the defendant had no right to a jury trial. (Id. at pp. 1194—1195.)
Tighe observed that “the ‘prior conviction’ exception to Apprendi’s general rule must be limited to prior convictions that were themselves obtained through proceedings that included the right to a jury trial and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Juvenile adjudications that do not afford the right to a jury trial and a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt burden of proof, therefore, do not fall within Apprendi’s ‘prior conviction’ exception.” (U.S. v. Tighe, supra, 266 F.3d at p. 1194, fn. omitted, italics added.)
I agree with the reasoning in Tighe and therefore conclude that defendant’s prior juvenile adjudication cannot be used to increase his sentence under the Three Strikes law because defendant did not have the right to a jury trial in the juvenile proceeding.
In holding to the contrary, the majority emphasizes that California’s Three Strikes law requires that a prior conviction, including a prior juvenile *1321adjudication, be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, and it provides for the right to a jury trial on the question of whether the defendant suffered a prior conviction. But the right to a jury trial on the question of whether a defendant suffered a prior conviction is far different from the right to a jury trial in determining whether the defendant actually committed the underlying conduct. It is the latter determination that was the focus of the Tighe court, and it is the fact that an adult criminal defendant is found guilty in a proceeding where the defendant had a right to jury trial that imbues an adult prior conviction with constitutional distinctiveness. The same cannot be said of a juvenile proceeding. That a jury may determine whether a defendant has previously been found by a juvenile court judge to have committed the conduct resulting in the prior juvenile adjudication does nothing to alleviate the concerns expressed in Tighe. It does not make the prior juvenile adjudication constitutionally distinctive. The basic premise of Tighe is that the trial court may not impose a sentence greater than the statutory maximum for a current offense unless the defendant had the right to trial by jury in the proceedings underlying his prior conviction. By suggesting that Tighe only requires that there be a right to a jury trial on the truth of the fact of the prior juvenile adjudication, the majority seriously misconstrues Tighe and the premise upon which it is based.
Recently, the Harvard Law Review analyzed Tighe and the Eight Circuit’s decision in U.S. v. Smalley (8th Cir. 2002) 294 F.3d 1030, in which the court of appeals approved the use of a defendant’s prior juvenile adjudications as “prior convictions” under the Armed Career Criminal Act of 1994. The author concluded, “Whereas Tighe quotes Jones and Apprendi at length and uses categorical language that echoes their themes, Smalley cites these precedents in large part to distinguish their discussion of the jury trial right from its own conclusions. Compared with the approach of Smalley, therefore, Tighe’s understanding of the jury trial right is more consistent with the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent jury trial jurisprudence.” (Note, Constitutional Law—Right to Jury Trial—Eighth Circuit Holds an Adjudication of Juvenile Delinquency To Be a “Prior Conviction” for the Purpose of Sentence Enhancement at a Subsequent Criminal Proceeding (2002) 116 Harv. L.Rev. 705, 708, fns. omitted.)
The critical differences between juvenile and criminal court proceedings support the view that a prior juvenile adjudication should not be used to increase a defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum. Over 30 years ago, the United States Supreme Court interpreted the United States Constitution to allow states to deny juveniles the right to a jury trial in juvenile proceedings. (McKeiver v. Pennsylvania (1971) 403 U.S. 528 [29 L.Ed.2d 647, 91 S.Ct. 1976].) However, the McKeiver decision was based upon certain beliefs about the juvenile justice system—beliefs that hold less sway today given the current realities of the juvenile justice system. (Note, *1322Constitutional Law—Right to Jury Trial—Eighth Circuit Holds an Adjudication of Juvenile Delinquency To Be a “Prior Conviction” for the Purpose of Sentence Enhancement at a Subsequent Criminal Proceeding, supra, 116 Harv. L.Rev. at p. 708.)
For example, Justice White’s concurring opinion in McKeiver emphasizes that “reprehensible acts by juveniles are not deemed the consequence of mature and malevolent choice but of environmental pressures (or lack of them) or of other forces beyond their control. Hence the legislative judgment not to stigmatize the juvenile delinquent by branding him a criminal; his conduct is not deemed so blameworthy that punishment is required to deter him or others. Coercive measures, where employed, are considered neither retribution nor punishment. Supervision or confinement is aimed at rehabilitation, not at convincing the juvenile of his error simply by imposing pains and penalties.... Against this background and in light of the distinctive purpose of requiring juries in criminal cases, I am satisfied with the Court’s holding.” (McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, supra, 403 U.S. at pp. 551-552 (conc. opn. of White, J.).) As the author of the Harvard note stated, “Whether or not there was a great practical distinction—beyond the procedural protections issue— between the criminal and juvenile justice system of 1971, the systems have since converged to the point that McKeiver’s idealistic conception of the juvenile justice system is hard to sustain.” (Note, Constitutional Imw—Right to Jury Trial—Eighth Circuit Holds an Adjudication of Juvenile Delinquency To Be a “Prior Conviction” for the Purpose of Sentence Enhancement at a Subsequent Criminal Proceeding, supra, 116 Harv. L.Rev. at p. 711.) Moreover, McKeiver’s belief about the preference for judicial fact finding in juvenile adjudications seems at odds with the United States Supreme Court’s recent statement that “The Sixth Amendment jury trial right, however, does not turn on the relative rationality, fairness, or efficiency of potential factfinders.” (Ring v. Arizona (2002) 536 U.S. 584, 607 [153 L.Ed.2d 556, 122 S.Ct. 2428].)
When McKeiver’s dated and idealistic view of the juvenile justice system is balanced against United States Supreme Court’s recent cases emphasizing the importance of the right to a jury trial in circumstances where a fact increases the penalty for a crime beyond the statutory maximum, I believe the correct conclusion is that a juvenile adjudication, occurring as it does without the right to trial by jury, cannot be used to increase a defendant’s sentence under California’s Three Strikes law.
Finally, I am not persuaded by the majority’s view that Apprendi is satisfied by other procedural safeguards provided in juvenile adjudications. Nothing in Apprendi suggests that the denial of the right to a jury determination can be offset by the existence of other procedural protections.
*1323“The guarantees of jury trial in the Federal and State Constitutions reflect a profound judgment about the way in which law should be enforced and justice administered. A right to a jury trial is granted to criminal defendants in order to prevent oppression by the Government. Those who wrote our constitutions knew from history and experience that it was necessary to protect against unfounded charges brought to eliminate enemies and against judges too responsive to the voice of higher authority. The framers of the constitutions strove to create an independent judiciary but insisted upon further protection against arbitrary action. Providing an accused with the right to be tried by a jury of his peers gave him an inestimable safeguard against the corrupt or overzealous prosecutor and against the compliant, biased or eccentric judge. If the defendant preferred the common-sense judgment of a jury to the more tutored but perhaps less sympathetic reaction of the single judge, he was to have it. Beyond this, the jury trial provisions of the Federal and State Constitutions reflect a fundamental decision about the exercise of official power—a reluctance to entrust plenary powers over the life and liberty of the citizen to one judge or to a group of judges.” (Duncan v. Louisiana (1968) 391 U.S. 145, 155-156 [20 L.Ed.2d 491, 88 S.Ct. 1444], fn. omitted.)
For these reasons, I would hold that defendant’s prior juvenile adjudication cannot be used to increase his sentence under the Three Strikes law.
Appellant’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied December 10, 2003. Kennard, J., and Werdegar, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.