THE PEOPLE, Rеspondent, v. JOHN GONZALES et al., Appellants.
Crim. No. 4382
In Bank
Apr. 2, 1942
Rehearing Denied April 30, 1942
165
No such intention appears from the decrees in the case at bar, and we therefore hold that the provisions of the agreement cannot be enforced by a contempt proceeding.
The peremptory writ of mandate prayed for is denied.
Gibson, C. J., Shenk, J., Curtis, J., Houser, J., and Traynor, J., concurred.
Petitioner‘s application for a rehearing was denied April 30, 1942. Edmonds, J., voted for a rehearing.
Earl Warren, Attorney General, J. Albert Hutchinson and David K. Lener, Deputies Attorney General, Matthew Brady, District Attorney, and Joseph A. Garry, Assistant District Attorney, for Respondent.
TRAYNOR, J.—On June 17, 1940, an indictment was filed charging defendants Gonzales and Chierotti with having conspired together on May 25, 1940, to commit grand theft by fraudulent representations to Secundo Valenzano regarding a machine that purportedly could reproduce United States currency with the use of certain chemicals. The evidence showed that defendant Gonzales, after striking up an acquaintance with Secundo Valenzano, told Valenzano that a rich man had the machine, that real currency was necessary in making the reproductions, and that he would surreptitiously get possession of the machine and bring it to Valenzano‘s saloon. He brought the machine there, put some real bills into it, used the chemicals, and when the machine was openеd, there were two bills for each one originally inserted. Thereupon Gonzales told Valenzano that if he could get several thousand dollars in new bills, equal to an amount to be furnished by Gonzales, each could double his money by using the machine. Valenzano put up no money but notified the police who arrested both Gonzales and Chierotti.
Valenzano was the only witness who testified to the fore-
Before the commencement of the trial Chierotti sought an injunction in an independent proceeding against the San Francisco Police Department and Officer Iredale to enjoin the use of the case and contents at the trial and to restrain Officer Iredale from testifying to anything he saw, did or heard while engaged in his search and seizure. The court denied the injunction and Chierotti appealed to this court. Pending determination of the appeal, the lower court granted a temporary injunction restraining Officer Iredale from testifying with regard to the entry into Chierotti‘s apartment. Many months before the trial Chierotti filed a written motion for an order directing the return to him of the case and contents, and the exclusion from evidence, not only of this property, but of any testimony of the officers regarding the search and seizure or basеd on information acquired as a result thereof. The motion was denied. At the trial the court refused to enforce the temporary injunction, allowing Officer Iredale to testify in direct defiance thereof. The defendants were found guilty by the jury. After judgment was pronounced each defendant appealed to this court from the order denying his motion for a new trial and from the judgment.
The
The
A criminаl trial does not constitute a denial of due process of law so long as it is fair and impartial. (See cases cited in 16 C. J. S., p. 1185 et seq.) There is a failure to observe “that fundamental fairness essential to the very concept of justice” when a trial is but a pretense (Lisenba v. California, 314 U. S. 219, 236 [62 S. Ct. 280, 290, 86 L. Ed. 166]), as a trial dominated by a mob (Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U. S. 86 [43 S. Ct. 265, 67 L. Ed. 543]), or when the defendant is denied the right to counsel (Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U. S. 458 [58 S. Ct. 1019, 82 L. Ed. 1461]), or when his conviction results from testimony known by the prosecution to be perjured (Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U. S. 103 [55 S. Ct. 340, 79 L. Ed. 791, 98 A. L. R. 406]) or from an involuntary confession obtained through coercion or torture. (Chambers v. Florida, 309 U. S. 227 [60 S. Ct. 472, 84 L. Ed. 716]; Brown v. Mississippi, 297 U. S. 278 [56 S. Ct. 461, 80 L. Ed. 682].)
While the United States Supreme Court has held that the due process clause inсludes the guarantee of the
Defendants contend that the trial court should not have pеrmitted Officer Iredale to testify in view of the temporary injunction restraining him from testifying with regard to the entry into Chierotti‘s apartment. Objections to the testimony of a witness, however, should be made to the court before which he testifies and have no place in an injunction proceeding in another court. Any competent person who is properly subpoened, and who is not privileged, must appear in court and answer questions pertinent to the matter in issue. If he refuses to testify he may be punished for contempt of court, and no one may lawfully prevent or dissuade him from testifying. (
On cross-examination defendants’ attorney asked Officer Iredale if he had not been enjoined from testifying concerning anything he had learned as a result of his illegal search of Chierotti‘s apartment. Defendants contend that they had a right to ask this question for the purpose of im-
Defendants have also objected to the refusal of the trial court to give certain instructions to the jury. Proposed instruction number 30 stated: “... It is the law of this state, that in determining whether any such conspiracy existed of which the defendant Chierotti was a party, that testimony of the acts or declarations of the defendant Gonzales cannot be considered by you, and it is your duty to disregard all evidence as to any acts or declarations of the defendant Gonzales, and to determine the existence or non-existence of such conspiracy, so far as defendant Chierotti is concerned, from such other evidence as may be in the case against him. The fact that an unlawful conspiracy existed of which the defendant Chierotti was a member and the unlawful purpose of such conspiracy, must be established by evidence, to a moral certainty and beyond a reasonable doubt, separate and apart from and independent of any testimony as to any declarations that were made by the defendant Gonzales. In other words, in determining whеther defendant Chierotti was a member of the conspiracy charged you cannot consider any declaration or act that the defendant Gonzales said or did.” Proposed instruction number 31 is the same as number 30 except that it applies to defendant Gonzales instead of defendant Chierotti. Proposed instruction number 32 stated: “You are instructed that a conspiracy cannot be proven merely by the acts or declarations of an alleged conspirator and that you may not consider such acts or declarations unless you are first convinced beyond a reasonable doubt by entirely independent evidence that a conspiracy existed.”
The trial court instructed the jury on the subject of these instructions as follows: “The first fundamental question that you should determine in this case is: Was there in fact a conspiracy formed as charged in the indictment? If you answer that question in the negative, you are at an end of the case and your verdict should be not guilty. If, on the
These instructions told the jury that evidence admitted against Chierotti could not be used against Gonzales and that evidence admitted against Gonzales could not be used against Chierotti. They are ambiguous in failing to indicate to the jury what evidence was admitted against Gonzales and what evidence was admitted against Chierotti. The record, however, reveals that at the time evidence as to the acts and declarations of Gonzales was introduced, the court stated in the presence of the jury that the evidence was admitted against Gonzales and not against Chierоtti, and that at the time evidence as to the acts and declarations of Chierotti was introduced the court stated that it was admitted against Chierotti and not against Gonzales. The instructions, therefore, read in conjunction with the statements of the court during the trial indicated to the jury that the acts and declarations of Gonzales could not be used to prove Chierotti a party to the conspiracy and that the acts and declarations of Chierotti could not be used to prove Gonzales a рarty thereto. Any error in the instructions because of their ambiguity was therefore not prejudicial to defendants.
Defendants contend the evidence is insufficient to establish that Chierotti participated in the conspiracy. Participation in a conspiracy, however, can be shown by circumstantial evidence. (See cases cited in 5 Cal. Jur. 521.) The evidence shows that a bag containing the money making machine and bottles of liquid was in Chierotti‘s apartment, that
Any misconduct that may have existed on the prosecutor‘s part in referring to other bunco cases and bunco games during the course of his argument to the jury is not sufficiently prejudicial to justify reversal, particularly since the trial court refused to grant a new trial on this ground. (See Imlay v. California Cab Co., 124 Cal. App. 68 [11 P. (2d) 1116]; Alberts v. Lytle, 1 Cal. App. (2d) 682 [37 P. (2d) 705].)
The judgment of conviction and orders denying a nеw trial are affirmed.
Gibson, C. J., Shenk, J., Curtis, J., and Edmonds, J., concurred.
CARTER, J., Dissenting.—I dissent.
The rule followed by the majority opinion seriously impairs the efficacy and sanctity of the constitutional guarantee against unlawful searches and seizures. (
It cannot bе seriously questioned that to permit the use of evidence obtained in violation of the constitutional provision at least to some extent infringes upon the field of liberty secured by the inhibition against unlawful searches and seizures. But it goes beyond a mere partial invasion. It in effect practically destroys the right. That is true for the reason that the value of any right varies in direct proportion to the means afforded for the protection of the right; the realization of any benefit from the right is wholly dependent upon the existence of instruments for that purpose. If it may be violated and the fruits of the violation directed against the possessor of it, the fruits of it are lost, and it is no more than a bare abstraction.
I take it that a person in preserving the right here involved is justified in committing homicide. However, if he does not adopt that extreme measure, and in a well ordered social system that should be discouraged, he is faced with possibility that evidence obtained may be used against him. Certainly he should be given credit and security rather than being penalized for failing to pursue such an extreme course.
Permitting such evidence to be used is an invitation and encouragement to law enforcing officials to violate the Constitution. It gives them free reign to act upon mere suspicion and conjecture, to the harassment of the persons offended and to the end that the sanctity of his home or depository of his papers and effects is destroyed. It is of small comfort to say that he has an action against the offiсers. In most instances the amount of recovery would be negligible and the process costly.
In Weeks v. United States, 232 U. S. 383 [34 S. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed. 652], it was stated with respect to this issue:
“Judge Cooley, in his Constitutional Limitations, pp. 425, 426, in treating of this feature of our Constitution said: ‘The maxim that “every man‘s house is his castle” is made a part of our constitutional law in the clauses prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures, and has always been looked upon as of high value to the citizen.’ ‘Accordingly,’ says Lieber in his work on Civil Liberty and Self-Government, 62, in speaking of the English law in this respect, ‘no man‘s house can bе forcibly opened, or he or his goods be carried away after it has thus been forced, except in cases of felony; and
then the sheriff must be furnished with a warrant, and take great care lest he commit a trespass. This principle is jealously insisted upon.’ In Ex parte Jackson, 96 U. S. 727, 733, [24 L. Ed. 877, 879], this court recognized the principle of protection as applicable to letters and sealed packages in the mail, and held that, consistently with this guarantee of the right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures, such matter could only be opened and examined upon warrants issued on oath or affirmation, particularly describing the thing to be seized, ‘as is required when papers are subjected to search in one‘s own household.’ “In the Boyd case, supra, after citing Lord Camden‘s judgment in Entick v. Carrington, 19 How. St. Tr. 1029, Mr. Justice Bradley said (630):
“‘The principles laid down in this opinion affect the very essence of constitutional liberty and security. They reach farther than the concrete form of the case then before the court, with its adventitious circumstances; they аpply to all invasions on the part of the government and its employees of the sanctity of a man‘s home and the privacies of life. It is not the breaking of his doors and the rummaging of his drawers that constitutes the essence of the offense; but it is the invasion of his indefeasible right of personal security, personal liberty, and private property, where that right has never been forfeited by his conviction of some public offense,—it is the invasion of this sacred right which underlies and constitutes the essence of Lord Camden‘s judgment.‘” And again:
“The efforts of the courts and their officials to bring the guilty to punishment, praiseworthy as they are, are not to be aided by the sacrifice of those great principles established by years of endeavor and suffering which have resulted in their embodiment in the fundamental law of the land.”
In addition to the federal courts, the following states have adopted the rule that evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution is not admissible. (Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahоma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.) (See 24 A. L. R. 1408; 32 id. 408; 41 id. 1145; 52 id. 477; 88 id. 348; 134 id. 819.)
Obviously, the purpose and object of the constitutional provision in question was to guarantee security to the individual
History reveals many abuses by public officers both in England and colonial times in this country when officers invaded the premises of persons suspected of crimes, many of which have long since been abolished, and the papers and effects of innocent victims seized and used for the persecution as well as prosecution of such victims. It was to prevent these abuses thаt the
The more I read and hear about the tyranny of totalitarianism as it pervades a large part of the world today, the more appreciative I am of the constitutional form of government and the constitutional guarantees which we have in this country and in this state. And every time I see an effort being made to abrogate or nullify by interpretation any of the constitutional provisions designed to protect the life, liberty and property of the people, I shudder to contemplate what will happen if this disрosition to abrogate and nullify these constitutional provisions continues. I, for one, shall never yield to the doctrine that a constitutional provision designed to protect the life, liberty and property of the people of this
In my opinion it was prejudicial error requiring a reversal of the judgment for the trial court to admit the evidence obtained by the police officers as the result of the unlawful entry and search of the premises occupied by the defendants, and the judgment of conviction against them should therefore be reversed.
Houser, J., concurred.
Appellants’ petition for a rehearing was denied April 30, 1942. Carter, J., voted for a rehearing.
