Porter v. Superior Court

211 P.3d 606, 47 Cal. 4th 125, 97 Cal. Rptr. 3d 103, 2009 Cal. LEXIS 7480
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 23, 2009
DocketS152273
StatusPublished
Cited by81 cases

This text of 211 P.3d 606 (Porter v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porter v. Superior Court, 211 P.3d 606, 47 Cal. 4th 125, 97 Cal. Rptr. 3d 103, 2009 Cal. LEXIS 7480 (Cal. 2009).

Opinions

Opinion

CORRIGAN, J.

This is a companion case to People v. Anderson (2009) 47 Cal.4th 92 (Anderson), also filed today. In Anderson, we held that retrial of a penalty allegation on which a jury has deadlocked is not barred by constitutional double jeopardy principles or by Penal Code section 1023.1 We also concluded that retrial may be limited to the deadlocked allegation alone and need not encompass the underlying offense.

Petitioner here raises the same arguments we addressed in Anderson but in a different procedural context. A jury convicted petitioner of all substantive offenses and found all attached penalty allegations and enhancements to be true. The trial court granted a new trial on some of these penalty factors. Sitting, in effect, as a “13th juror,” the court concluded the allegations had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. (§ 1181, subd. 6 (hereafter section [130]*1301181(6)).) Petitioner then objected that a second trial on the sentencing allegations would violate double jeopardy. The trial court rejected that argument, but the Court of Appeal disagreed. Relying on language in Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) 530 U.S. 466 [147 L.Ed.2d 435, 120 S.Ct. 2348] (Apprendi) requiring that certain sentencing factors be treated as the “functional equivalent” of elements of greater offenses, as compared with the underlying offense alone, the Court of Appeal concluded retrial of the penalty allegations would violate the double jeopardy clause and section 1023. Accordingly, that court issued a peremptory writ of mandate directing the trial court to dismiss the allegations. We reverse.

BACKGROUND

Based on his participation in a driveby shooting, petitioner Anthony Porter was indicted on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, shooting from a motor vehicle, and carrying a loaded firearm registered to a different owner.2 The indictment alleged that the attempted murders were committed willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation (§ 664, subd. (a)), and that all of the offenses were committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang (§ 186.22, subd. (b)(1)). Enhancements to the attempted murder and assault charges were alleged for personal use of a firearm (§§ 12022.5, subd. (a), 12022.53, subd. (c)). The jury convicted on all counts and found all the allegations true.

Petitioner sought a new trial under section 1181(6), arguing there was insufficient evidence to prove he acted with premeditation and deliberation, with intent to kill, or for the benefit of a street gang. The trial court rejected the argument relating to intent, observing, “It’s impossible to summon up what the intent could have been under these circumstances if not the intent to kill. . . .” However, the court found it “a closer question” whether sufficient, credible evidence supported the finding of premeditation and deliberation. It conceded that some evidence supported premeditation, including testimony that petitioner’s car drove past the victims two or three times before petitioner opened fire. But, “on balance, given the really uncontroverted evidence of [petitioner’s] extreme intoxication in the hours preceding the shooting,” the court did not believe petitioner acted with the more exacting mental state. The court also found the evidence of gang involvement to be weak. In the court’s view, scant evidence showed the “Krazy Ass Pimps” gang was still in existence at the time of the shooting. The court characterized the testimony identifying petitioner as a member of this gang as “very, very [131]*131vague.” Accordingly, the court granted a new trial on the gang enhancements and the allegation of premeditation and deliberation.

After announcing this ruling, the trial court proceeded to sentencing. The court remarked that the People could request a date for a new trial on the premeditation allegation and gang enhancements, and if a jury later found them to be true petitioner could be resentenced. Petitioner’s counsel agreed to this proposal. The court then imposed a total imprisonment of 25 years.

Several months later, petitioner filed a demurrer, along with a motion to dismiss, and entered pleas of former judgment and once in jeopardy (§ 1016, subds. 4, 5) with respect to the premeditation and gang allegations. Reasoning that these sentencing factors were elements of greater offenses under Apprendi, as construed by this court in People v. Seel (2004) 34 Cal.4th 535 [21 Cal.Rptr.3d 179, 100 P.3d 870] (Seel), petitioner argued the court lacked the power to grant a section 1181 motion as to an element alone and could not limit retrial to an element of an offense. Petitioner argued that, to grant relief under section 1181, the trial court either had to “reduce the verdict to a lesser included offense or order a new trial of the principal offense.” In addition, based on the court’s comments at the section 1181 hearing that “no” evidence supported the allegations, petitioner asserted that the court found the evidence legally insufficient to support the jury’s verdicts, such that double jeopardy barred retrial. (See Burks v. United States (1978) 437 U.S. 1 [57 L.Ed.2d 1, 98 S.Ct. 2141].) The trial court rejected these arguments. Retrial of the sentencing allegations was stayed, however, when petitioner sought a writ of mandate.

In the Court of Appeal, petitioner renewed his arguments that double jeopardy barred further trial on the penalty allegations and that Apprendi, supra, 530 U.S. 466, precluded trial of the allegations alone because they constituted discrete elements of greater offenses. The Court of Appeal determined the granting of a new trial could not be construed as an implied acquittal of the sentencing allegations but agreed that Apprendi rendered the allegations the equivalent of elements of greater offenses. It remained skeptical whether a defendant who creates the need for a second trial by bringing a motion seeking precisely this relief can then claim double jeopardy. The court observed, “Retrial of a greater offense after a defendant has successfully brought a statutory new trial motion is not the type of governmental oppression or prosecutorial overreaching targeted by the double jeopardy clause.” The court ultimately did not resolve the federal double jeopardy question because it concluded retrial of the allegations was barred by section 1023 and our holding in People v. Fields (1996) 13 Cal.4th 289 [52 Cal.Rptr.2d 282, 914 P.2d 832] (Fields). Based on its view that sentencing allegations are elements of an offense under Apprendi, it concluded that [132]*132retrial of the allegations alone would be no different from having piecemeal jury trials of discrete elements of an offense, a prospect at odds with the Sixth Amendment’s jury trial guarantee.

The Court of Appeal directed the trial court to dismiss the premeditation and gang enhancement allegations. We granted review to decide whether double jeopardy principles permit retrial of a penalty allegation after the jury’s verdict is found “contrary to . . . evidence” under section 1181(6).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
211 P.3d 606, 47 Cal. 4th 125, 97 Cal. Rptr. 3d 103, 2009 Cal. LEXIS 7480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-superior-court-cal-2009.