People v. Williams
People v. Williams
Opinion of the Court
Appellant was found guilty in 1962 of possessing heroin (Health & Saf. Code, § 11500). He was placed in the California Rehabilitation Center for treatment of addiction (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 3051) and almost five years later was returned to court. Probation was then denied and judgment was pronounced. On appeal, it is contended that trial counsel’s incompetence amounted to a denial of due process. Specifically it is complained that trial by jury was waived and the cause was submitted on the transcript of the preliminary hearing despite the asserted failure of the attorney who appeared for appellant at the preliminary hearing to present a vigorous and effective defense. But appellant failed to attack the adequacy of representation at the preliminary hearing by motion under Penal Code, section 995. (Cf. People v. Wilkins (1967) 251 Cal.App.2d 823, 826 [60 Cal.Rptr. 49].) Moreover, the record shows that while represented by new counsel he personally waived trial by jury and agreed that the cause might be submitted for decision on the transcript of the preliminary hearing. Any point appellant may have had regarding adequacy of counsel at the preliminary hearing is therefore lost.
A more difficult problem is presented by the testimony of the arresting officer that while appellant was in custody he “stated that he had received the paper of heroin from a person on Broderick Street that date, . . •” The record does not show whether appellant, arrested in 1962, received an Escobedo-Dorado warning;
The crucial issue is whether the Escobedo-Dorado rule
Appellant was tried prior to June 22, 1964 but because he had spent approximately five years at the rehabilitation center for narcotic addicts judgment was not entered until March 14, 1967. Thus his case was not final for all purposes on June 22, 1964. Although the date of final judgment is generally the critical time in determining questions of limited retro-activity (People v. Charles (1967) 66 Cal.2d 330, 335 [57 Cal.Rptr. 745, 425 P.2d 545], cert, den., 389 U.S. 872 [19 L.Ed.2d 153, 88 S.Ct. 159]), “we are not bound to a rigid formula when special problems exist.” (People v. Rivers (1967) 66 Cal.2d 1000, 1003, fin. 3 [59 Cal.Rptr. 851, 429 P.2d 171].)
As of June 22, 1964, appellant’s position was like that of the large number of other criminal defendants who had been convicted upon evidence which, after that date, would have been held to be inadmissible. That is to say, he could have moved for a new trial in 1962 but did not do so; in an appeal from an order denying such a motion he could have attacked any trial errors. It is true that he nevertheless can, on appeal from the judgment entered after his return from the rehabilitation facility, obtain review of claimed trial errors. (People
We willingly obey the rules regarding retroactivity which have been declared by the California Supreme Court; and in dealing with a case not specifically covered by rules heretofore announced we should be guided by the reasons which underlie our high court’s earlier decisions. The purpose of limiting the retroactive application of Escobedo-Dorado was to promote the orderly administration of justice and prevent the release of persons of undoubted guilt where the possibility of a successful retrial has been unduly diminished by the lapse of time. (People v. Rivers, supra, 66 Cal.2d 1000, 1003; In re Lopez, supra, 62 Cal.2d 368, 381.) Those considerations indicate to us that where the entry of final judgment of conviction has been deferred by reason of proceedings under the Narcotic Addict Rehabilitation Law that delay is not to be used to bring the case within Escobedo-Dorado requirements.
The judgment is affirmed.
Devine, P. J., and Rattigan, J., concurred.
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) 378 U.S. 478 [12 L.Ed.2d 977, 84 S.Ct. 1758]; People v. Dorado (1965) 62 Cal.2d 338 [42 Cal.Rptr. 169, 398 P.2d 361].
Reference
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- THE PEOPLE, and v. GENE EDWARD WILLIAMS, and
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