People v. Hall

388 P.3d 794, 213 Cal. Rptr. 3d 561, 2 Cal. 5th 494
California Supreme Court·Decided February 9, 2017·No. S227193·Published·Cited by 94 cases

Opinion

Cuéllar, J.

*497The terms of defendant's probation bar him from possessing firearms or illegal drugs. He contends that these conditions on his release are unconstitutionally vague on their face, because they do not explicitly define the state of mind, or mens rea, required to sustain a violation of probation. He requests modification of the conditions to convey explicitly that they apply only to knowing possession of the prohibited items. What we conclude is that the probation conditions already include an implicit requirement of knowing possession, and thus afford defendant fair notice of the conduct required of him. We therefore affirm the Court of Appeal.

I. BACKGROUND

Defendant LaQuincy Hall was convicted of possessing cocaine base for sale ( **796Health & Saf. Code, § 11351.5 ) and placed on three years' probation. As modified by the Court of Appeal to conform to the oral pronouncement of sentence ( *498People v. Mitchell (2001) 26 Cal.4th 181, 185, 109 Cal.Rptr.2d 303, 26 P.3d 1040 ), the conditions of probation provided that defendant "may not own, possess or have in [his] custody or control any handgun, rifle, shotgun or any firearm whatsoever or any weapon that can be concealed on [his] person," and that he "shall not use or possess or have in [his] custody or control any illegal drugs, narcotics, [or] narcotics paraphernalia without a prescription." Defendant offered no objection to either condition.

Defendant challenged these conditions as unconstitutionally vague for the first time on appeal. The Court of Appeal deemed this facial challenge cognizable as a question of law (In re Sheena K. (2007) 40 Cal.4th 875, 889, 55 Cal.Rptr.3d 716, 153 P.3d 282 (Sheena K. )), but rejected it on the merits. The appellate court considered whether the vagueness doctrine requires a probation condition to explicitly spell out the mens rea necessary to sustain a violation of the condition. It concluded that the firearms and narcotics conditions did not need to be modified to bar "knowing" possession "because the mens rea generally applicable to probation conditions precludes the finding of unwitting violations."

Other Courts of Appeal have taken a different view. (Compare People v. Moore (2012) 211 Cal.App.4th 1179, 1189, 150 Cal.Rptr.3d 437 [concluding that modification of a weapons condition to add an express knowledge requirement was "unnecessary"] with People v. Freitas (2009) 179 Cal.App.4th 747, 752, 102 Cal.Rptr.3d 51 [finding it "appropriate" to modify the condition so as to bar defendant from "knowingly " possessing the prohibited items].) We granted review to resolve the conflict.

II. DISCUSSION

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People v. Hall, 388 P.3d 794, 213 Cal. Rptr. 3d 561, 2 Cal. 5th 494 (Cal. 2017).

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