People v. Seel

100 P.3d 870, 34 Cal. 4th 535, 2004 Daily Journal DAR 14170, 21 Cal. Rptr. 3d 179, 2004 Cal. LEXIS 11331
California Supreme Court·Decided November 29, 2004·No. No. S106273·Published·Cited by 119 cases

Opinions

Opinion

CHIN, J.

In 1996, we held that an allegation prescribing a greater punishment for an attempt to commit murder that is “willful, deliberate, and premeditated” (Pen. Code,1 § 664, subd. (a) (section 664(a)) constituted a penalty provision to which double jeopardy protections do not apply. (People v. Bright (1996) 12 Cal.4th 652, 656-657 [49 Cal.Rptr.2d 732, 909 P.2d 1354] (Bright).) Several years later, in a case not involving double jeopardy, the United States Supreme Court concluded that any fact other than a prior conviction that increases punishment beyond the prescribed statutory maximum “is the functional equivalent of an element of a greater offense than the one covered by the jury’s guilty verdict.” (Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) 530 U.S. 466, 494, fn. 19 [147 L.Ed.2d 435, 120 S.Ct. 2348] (Apprendi).)2

In light of Apprendi and related cases, we must decide whether double jeopardy protections preclude a retrial of the premeditation allegation (§ 664(a)) after an appellate finding of evidentiary insufficiency. For reasons that follow, we conclude that the federal double jeopardy clause (U.S. Const., 5th Amend.) bars retrial.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

This background is largely drawn from the Court of Appeal’s unpublished opinion.

On May 1, 1999, around 11:00 p.m., John Park and three friends, Nathan Yoshizaki, Leland Fong, and Eric Shing, went out for dinner. Yoshizaki drove the group to a restaurant and parked his car in the parking lot. Defendant William Harlow Seel and a female companion, Shanda Bustamante, left the [540] restaurant and got into defendant’s car. As defendant drove out of the parking lot, Park, who was standing in front of the restaurant, heard gunfire, dropped to the ground, and took cover on the right side of Yoshizaki’s car. Park and his friends had exchanged no words or gestures with defendant or Bustamante. However, Park had glanced over at defendant’s car more than once because he “heard the exhaust.” Yoshizaki’s car had a bullet hole near the left headlight and the bumper. That was “essentially . . . exactly where [Park] walked past” as he was going toward the restaurant.

At trial, defendant testified that when he parked his car in the restaurant’s lot, Park and his friends drove up and parked one space away from him. One or two of the men got out of their car, and defendant entered the restaurant to pick up Bustamante. The men started yelling, and defendant believed there was going to be trouble. As defendant and Bustamante left the restaurant and walked toward defendant’s car, defendant and the other males looked at each other. Defendant became “increasingly fearful” because of the way the four men were looking at him. He “just felt like something bad was going to happen.” As defendant drove out of the parking lot and onto the street, he fired his gun “toward the air like above their car, around that area.” He fired three rounds. He “felt kind of paranoid and stuff.” He did not plan to shoot or kill Park and did not even know him. Defendant said he kept the gun in his car for protection. He also testified that he had smoked methamphetamine earlier that day and was not “thinking clearly.”

A jury convicted defendant of the attempted premeditated murder of Park (§§ 664(a), 187, subd. (a)) and found that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm. (§ 12022.53, subd. (c).) The trial court imposed a sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole, plus 20 years for the section 12022.53, subdivision (c), allegation. Defendant appealed.

Among other things, defendant argued that there was no substantial evidence of premeditation or deliberation. The Court of Appeal agreed. It concluded, “The finding of premeditation and deliberation, therefore, must be reversed and the matter remanded for retrial on the penalty allegation. (See People v. Bright (1996) 12 Cal.4th 652, 671 [49 Cal.Rptr.2d 732, 909 P.2d 1354].)”

We granted defendant’s petition for review, limited to the issue whether the premeditation allegation (§ 664(a)) may be retried.

II. Discussion

As relevant here, section 664(a) provides that a defendant convicted of attempted murder is subject to a sentence of life with the possibility of [541] parole if the jury finds that the attempted murder was “willful, deliberate, and premeditated murder, as defined in section 189.” (§ 664(a); see Bright, supra, 12 Cal.4th at p. 665.) Unless the jury finds this premeditation allegation to be true, a defendant convicted of attempted murder is subject to a determinate sentence of five, seven, or nine years. (§ 664(a).)

Defendant here argues that the Court of Appeal’s finding that the evidence was insufficient to support the premeditation allegation (§ 664(a)) constituted an acquittal for double jeopardy purposes, thus barring retrial. (See Burks v. United States (1978) 437 U.S. 1 [57 L.Ed.2d 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141] (Burks).) However, in Bright we held that section 664(a) is a penalty provision to which double jeopardy protections do not apply. (Bright, supra, 12 Cal.4th at p. 671.) Also, the high court, in affirming our decision in People v. Monge (1997) 16 Cal.4th 826 [66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121] (lead opn. of Chin, J.) (Monge I), held that the double jeopardy clause does not bar retrial of a prior conviction allegation after an appellate finding of evidentiary insufficiency. (Monge v. California (1998) 524 U.S. 721, 734 [141 L.Ed.2d 615, 118 S.Ct. 2246] (Monge II).)

Defendant seeks support in Apprendi, supra, 530 U.S. 466, a sentence enhancement case not involving double jeopardy. In Apprendi, the high court held: “Other 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.) With respect to these constitutional protections at least, the high court made clear that “[mjerely using the label ‘sentence enhancement’ ” does not preclude treating the enhancement as an element of an offense. (Apprendi, supra, 530 U.S. at p. 476.)

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People v. Seel, 100 P.3d 870, 34 Cal. 4th 535, 2004 Daily Journal DAR 14170, 21 Cal. Rptr. 3d 179, 2004 Cal. LEXIS 11331 (Cal. 2004).

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