People v. Shaw

237 Cal. App. 2d 606, 47 Cal. Rptr. 96, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 1295
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 22, 1965
DocketCrim. 4703
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 237 Cal. App. 2d 606 (People v. Shaw) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Shaw, 237 Cal. App. 2d 606, 47 Cal. Rptr. 96, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 1295 (Cal. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

*610 SIMS, J.

Defendant appeals from the judgment of the trial court sentencing him to state prison for the term prescribed by law for forcible rape in violation of subdivision 3 of section 261 of the Penal Code. The defendant was convicted of this offense and of robbery in the second degree in violation of section 211 of the Penal Code following trial by jury, but the latter conviction was set aside on motion of the district attorney on the grounds that further proceedings on that charge would subject the defendant to double punishment. On his arraignment on an amended information the defendant, in addition to entering a plea of not guilty to each of the foregoing charges, had admitted allegations which charged that he had a prior conviction of robbery in 1957 and a prior conviction of kidnapping in 1959, and that he had served a term of imprisonment for each in the state prison.

Defendant attacks the ruling of the trial court in limiting him to 10 peremptory challenges, its rulings on the admission of evidence, the manner in which it instructed the jury, and asserts allegedly prejudicial misconduct on the part of the prosecutor.

The victim testified she was robbed and criminally assaulted at about 1:30 a.m. on December 8, 1963, in a parking lot as she was about to drive home. She identified defendant as the perpetrator following his apprehension within an hour of the alleged attack, again at a police lineup on December 9th, and finally at the trial.

The defendant claimed that he was elsewhere at the time of the alleged assault and produced witnesses who generally corroborated the activities recited by him, but left him unattended going from one cafe to another restaurant at about the time in question.

The remaining facts surrounding the occurrence insofar as they bear on the issues raised by appellant are hereinafter set forth.

The Alleged Error in Disallowing More Than Ten Peremptory Challenges

After the defendant had exercised nine peremptory challenges and had examined a juror seated to replace one whom had been excused by the court for cause, and after the People had expressed satisfaction with the jury as constituted, the court stated: “What says the Defendant? This is your last challenge Mr. Larson. ’ ’ The defendant excused the juror, and thereupon a new juror was sworn and examined by both sides. *611 When the People expressed satisfaction with the jury, the court ordered the clerk to swear the jurors to try the case. The defendant then sought to exercise a further peremptory challenge to a juror who had been seated following the exercise of his ninth challenge. 1

Defendant claims he was deprived of his rights under section 1070 of the Penal Code which provides: “If the offense charged be punishable with death, or with imprisonment in the state prison for life, the defendant is entitled to twenty and the state to twenty peremptory challenges. On a trial for any other offense, the defendant is entitled to ten and the state to ten peremptory challenges.” The failure to grant a defendant the prescribed number of peremptory challenges when the record reflects his desire to excuse a juror before whom he was tried is reversible error. (People v. Diaz (1951) 105 Cal. App.2d 690, 695 [234 P.2d 300], hearing in S. Ct. den. Aug. 23,1951; People v. O’Connor (1927) 81 Cal.App. 506, 519-521 [254 P. 630]; People v. O’Neil (1882) 61 Cal. 435, 436; People v. Harris (1882) 61 Cal. 136, 137; cf. People v. Bugg (1947) 79 Cal.App.2d 174, 176 [179 P.2d 346]; People v. Aguinaldo (1934) 3 Cal.App.2d 254, 260 [39 P.2d 505]; and People v. Carter (1961) 56 Cal.2d 549, 573-574 [15 Cal.Rptr. 645, 364 P.2d 477], and note 3 U.C.L.A. L.Rev. 384-387; and see Swain v. Alabama (1965) 380 U.S. 202, 211-212 [85 S.Ct. 824, 831, 13 L.Ed.2d 759, 766-744] for the historical background of the peremptory challenge.)

He first points out that under the charge of forcible rape he was punishable by, and in fact was sentenced to, imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than three years (Pen. Code, § 264), which under the provisions of section 671 of the Penal Code subjected and subjects him to a maximum term of imprisonment in the state prison for life. (People v. Bales (1961) 189 Cal.App.2d 694, 705 [11 Cal.Rptr. 639] (double punishment, rape including incest) ; see also People v. Harmon (1960) 54 Cal.2d 9, 16-17 [4 Cal.Rptr. 161, 351 P.2d 329] (construction of Pen. Code, § 4500) ; In re Larsen *612 (1955) 44 Cal.2d 642, 647-648 [283 P.2d 1043] (upholding constitutionality of the indeterminate sentence law) ; and People v. Collins (1963) 220 Cal.App.2d 563, 580-581 [33 Cal.Rptr. 638] (multiple punishment, burglary including three other offenses incident to the same objective).) He also alleges that at the start of the trial under the same principle he was also subject to punishment for a maximum term of life imprisonment if convicted of robbery (Pen. Code, §§ 213 and 671; People v. Aldridge (1961) 197 Cal.App.2d 555, 560 [17 Cal.Rptr. 304] (double punishment, robbery including assault with a deadly weapon)) ; and finally that in view of Ills admission of the two prior felony convictions as .alleged, he was subject, if convicted of either of the offenses charged, to imprisonment in the state prison for life as an habitual criminal pursuant to the provisions of section 644 of the Penal Code.

The question presented by the sentences for the principal offenses—not less than three years for rape (Pen. Code, § 264) or not less than five years, or one year, for robbery (Pen. Code, § 213) came before the court in People v. Clough (1881) 59 Cal. 438 under similar provisions of section 1070 as it read prior to its amendment in 1927. The court stated: “It is claimed on this appeal, that robbery is punishable for life; that the defendant was entitled to twenty peremptory challenges, and that the Court erred in its ruling. The section in question has never received a judicial interpretation, and the point is a new one. We are called upon to decide it without precedent or authority to aid us. ‘If the offense charged is punishable with death or with imprisonment in the State Prison for life, the defendant is entitled to twenty peremptory challenges.’ Such is the language of the section now under consideration. We have reached the conclusion that it is only in capital eases, or cases in which a life sentence is in terms affixed by the Legislature as the punishment of the crime, that the defendant is entitled to twenty peremptory challenges. Bobbery is not such a crime.

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Bluebook (online)
237 Cal. App. 2d 606, 47 Cal. Rptr. 96, 1965 Cal. App. LEXIS 1295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-shaw-calctapp-1965.