262 Cal. App. 2d 145 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1968
On March 1, 1966, defendant Virginia Catherine Beckett pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery. (Pen. Code, § 470.) On June 20 her motion to withdraw the plea of guilty and her motion for a new trial
None of the orders from which defendant has purported to appeal are appealable. There never has been a judgment in this case on the appeal from which the orders being questioned would be reviewable. Denials of motions for new trial are separately appealable only where the defendant is committed for sexual psychopathy, insanity or narcotics addiction.
Defendant argues that her commitment for observation under section 1203.03 of the Penal Code was a special proceeding and appealable as a final judgment in such proceeding under section 963 of the Code of Civil Procedure. (In re De La O, 59 Cal.2d 128, 156 [28 Cal.Rptr. 489, 378 P.2d 793, 98 A.L.R.2d 705]; People v. Gross, 44 Cal.2d 859, 860 [285 P. 2d 630].) We disagree. In People v. Gross, supra, it was held that sexual psychopathy proceedings, as they were then called, were special proceedings within the meaning of section 963 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In In re De La O the same result was reached with respect to narcotic commitments.
The type of proceedings under consideration in Gross and De La O are separate from the criminal proceedings. A commitment under section 1203.03 of the Penal Code is an integral part of the criminal probation and sentencing process. If the Legislature had decided that an order for commitment under that section be separately appealable, it would have so provided in the Penal Code. It did not do so.
Defendant also relies on Thurmond v. Superior Court, 49
We think that Thurmond is not in point for two reasons:
1. At the time of Thurmond—1957—an order denying a new trial was appealable. Rule 31 had been drafted without consideration of the operation of the sexual psycopathy law. To rectify this mistake, the court looked to the purpose of rule 31 —the prevention of preparation of unnecessary transcripts— and interpreted it in a manner not inconsistent with that purpose. It did not create a right to appeal from a non-appealable order.
2. The maximum commitment under section 1203.03 is 90 days.
The People’s motion is granted and the defendant Beckett’s appeals are dismissed.
Hufstedler, J., and Stephens, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied July 10,1968.
It may be questioned whether the court would have had any power to grant such a motion. In view of the guilty plea there was no issue to
In view of the non-appealability of the order from which the purported appeals were taken, the grant of bail and defendant’s later release effectively brought all proceedings to a dead stop.