SHAWN GARFIELD PRICE, Pеtitioner, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Respondent; THE PEOPLE, Real Party in Interest.
No. S085852
Supreme Court of California
June 25, 2001.
25 Cal. 4th 1046
David Joseph Macher for Petitioner.
No appearance for Respondent.
Grover Trask, District Attorney, and Elaina Gambera Bentley, Deputy District Attorney, for Real Party in Interest.
OPINION
BAXTER, J.—
The
The Court of Appeal rejected petitioner‘s argument that
I
Background
Petitioner Shawn Garfield Price is charged in a fourth amended felony complaint filed on July 20, 1999, in the Riverside County Superior Court with: count 1—the April 1, 1998, murder (
The Santa Clara County offense (count 5 above) was originally charged in a felony complaint filed on April 15, 1998, in the Municipal Court of the Santa Clara County Judicial District. Thereafter, a felony complaint filed in the Riverside County Superior Court on March 1, 1999, charged petitioner with the four Riverside County offenses. On March 5, 1999, the Riverside County prosecutor moved to consolidate the Santa Clara County case with the Riverside County prosecution pursuant to
The Court of Appeal first rejected petitioner‘s claims that the consolidation procedure violated
The Court of Appeal reasoned that the contemporary right to trial by jury no longer contemplates jurors who are familiar with the parties and the locality and therefore are able to supply their own personal knowledge in evaluating the evidence. That common law concept has been replaced with a right to trial by jurors who do not have independent knowledge of those factors. In People v. Richardson (1934) 138 Cal.App. 404, 407 [32 P.2d 433] (Richardson), the court held that the right to a jury of the vicinage was satisfied by a jury drawn from the county in which the trial is authorized by law to be held. People v. Powell (1891) 87 Cal. 348, 354-360 [25 P. 481] (Powell), which interpreted vicinage as the county in which the offense occurred, had been criticized, and this court‘s decision in People v. Prather (1901) 134 Cal. 386, 389-390 [66 P. 483] upholding trial of theft-related offenses in either the county in which the theft occurred or that to which the property was taken, cast doubt on Powell.
The Court of Appeal here recognized that, unlike the cases in which venue is proper in any county in which an act related to the charged offense occurs,
Petitioner now repeats his contentions that
II
Discussion
We first address petitioner‘s claim that
Nothing in the language of
Moreover, when enacting
We agree with the Court of Appeal, therefore, that the consolidation of the Santa Clara County charge with those pending in Riverside County is authorized by
B. Venue.
As People v. Guzman (1988) 45 Cal.3d 915, 934 [248 Cal.Rptr. 467, 755 P.2d 917] explains: “[V]enue and vicinage are logically distinct concepts. Venue refers to the location where the trial is held, whereas vicinage refers to the area from which the jury pool is drawn. (Kershen, Vicinage (1976) 29 Okla.L.Rev. 801, 805.) It is possible in theory to change one but not the other. (See, e.g., State of Maryland v. Brown (D.Md. 1969) 295 F.Supp. 63, 79, 82.)”
The concepts of venue and vicinage are closely related, as a jury pool ordinarily is selected from the area in which the trial is to be held. The concepts have different origins and purposes, however. Venue is historically significant from a national perspective because, as discussed below, the pre-Revolutionary practice of transporting colonists who were charged with crimes in the colonies to either England or other English colonies for trial was among
Relying on People v. Sering (1991) 232 Cal.App.3d 677, 687-691 [283 Cal.Rptr. 507] (Sering), petitioner contends that trial of the Santa Clara County charge in Riverside County violates the venue rule, as the charge will be tried in a county remote from the scene of the crime. This claim lacks merit. The general rule of territorial jurisdiction over felonies is that stated in
When the Legislature creates an exception to the rule of
“[Assembly Bill] 2734 seeks to provide for the ability to combine trials when the victim and the defendant are the same for all the offenses. In crimes of domestic violence and child abuse or molestation, there is a high degree of mobility. The first offense may happen in one county, and then the victim moves to another county. The defendant follows them and commits the same crime again. Because of the repeat offenses, the victim is faced with the possibility of multiple trials.
“[Assembly Bill] 2734 would allow the trials to be combined when the defendant, victim and crime are the same. This will save the victim from testifying in the multiple trials over several years. Additionally, this will provide a cost savings to the trial court system by reducing the number of trials.” (Sen. Rules Com., Off. of Sen. Floor Analyses, 3d reading analysis of Assem. Bill 2734, as amended June 15, 1998.)
Notwithstanding the general preference for local venue recognized by the court in Sering, supra, 232 Cal.App.2d 677, 687, because venue for trial implicates legislative pоlicy, not constitutional imperative, the Legislature may determine the venue for trial except to the
C. Vicinage.
Petitioner argues that the vicinage provision of the
Petitioner‘s vicinage claim recognizes that, with a single exception,6 trial court jurors may be summoned for service only by courts of, and for service in, the county of their residence. (
1. Venue and vicinage under the Sixth Amendment.
The People argue that the vicinage clause of the
At the time of its adoption, the Bill of Rights, of which the
While the courts of other jurisdictions are divided on the incorporation question (see 1 LaFave et al., Criminal Procedure (2d ed. 1999) § 2.6(b), p. 568, and cases cited), since our decision in Jones, several courts have recognized that the United States Supreme Court has not held that the vicinage clause of the
Because the parties in their briefs assumed, based on Hernandez and Jones, that the
Petitioner argues that the court should adhere to Hernandez and Jones, because they are well reasoned.8 He argues that Williams, supra, 399 U.S. 78, Duncan, supra, 391 U.S. 145, and the history of the
People disagree, noting the varying views of other courts, and concluding that the vicinage requirement is not an essential or fundamental aspect of the right to jury trial that must be deemed to have been incorporated.
Petitioner‘s reliance on Hernandez and Jones for his argument that the Santa Clara County charge may not be tried in Riverside County affords us the opportunity to reexamine the assumption that the vicinage provision is among those provisions of the
We note first that contrary to our assumption in Jones and Hernandez, Williams, supra, 399 U.S. 78, did not hold that the vicinage provision of the
The court mentioned the vicinage provision of the
” ‘The trial of all crimes . . . shall be by an impartial jury of freeholders of the vicinage, with the requisite of unanimity for conviction, of the right of challenge, and other accustomed requisites . . . .’
“The Amendment passed the House in substantially this form, but after more than a week of debate in the Senate it returned to the House considerably altered. While records of the actual debates that оccurred in the Senate are not available, a letter from [James] Madison to Edmund Pendleton on September 14, 1789, indicates that one of the Senate‘s major objections was to the ‘vicinage’ requirement in the House version. A conference committee was appointed. As reported in a second letter by Madison on September 23, 1789, the Senate remained opposed to the vicinage requirement, partly because in its view the then-pending judiciary bill—which was debated at the same time as the Amendments—adequately preserved the common-law vicinage feature, making it unnecessary to freeze that requirement into the Constitution. ‘The Senate,’ wrote Madison: [¶] ‘are . . . inflexible in opposing a definition of the locality of Juries.’ The vicinage they contend is either
too vague or too strict a term; too vague if depending on limits to be fixed by the pleasure of the law, too strict if limited to the county. It was proposed to insert after the word Juries, “with the accustomed requisites,” leaving the definition to be construed according to the judgment of professional men. Even this could not be obtained. . . . The Senate suppose, also, that the provision for vicinage in the Judiciary bill will sufficiently
“The version that finally emerged from the Committee was the version that ultimately became the Sixth Amendment. . . .” (Williams, supra, 399 U.S. at pp. 92-96 [90 S.Ct. at pp. 1902-1903], fns. omitted; see also 4 LaFave et al., supra, § 16.1(b), pp. 467-470; Cogan, The Complete Bill of Rights (1997) Amendment VI, p. 385 et seq.; Berger, Government by Judiciary: The Transformation of the Fourteenth Amendment (2d ed. 1997) pp. 452-453.)
The vicinage clause of the
However, the Constitution left the definition of the vicinage or district from which a jury was to be drawn for criminal trials in the federal court to Congress. The proposal to limit vicinage to the county was rejected. It is apparent, therefore, that designation of a specific area within a state from which a jury was to be drawn was not considered so fundamental to the right to jury trial that it was intended to be protected by the vicinage clause.
A further indication that it was not the intent to limit vicinage to the location of a charged crime is found in the recognition that when the
The failure of Congress to specify that all criminal trials must be held at the location of the crime in the Judiciary Act of 1789 ((Sept. 24, 1789) 1 Stat. 73) is particularly
That section included the following footnote: “The Circuit Courts of the United States are bound to try all crimes committed within the district, which are duly presented before it; but not to try them in the county wherе they have been committed. United States v. Wilson and Porter, Baldwin‘s C.C.R. 78.” (1 Stat. 88.)
Contemporary understanding of the
Even were we to assume that the vicinage clause contemplated trial in the neighborhood of the crime, however, the question would remain as to whether the vicinage clause was incorporated and made applicable to the states through the
The first inquiry is readily answered. Nothing in the history of the
for Congress to impose upon the states, or for the ratifying states to agree to imposition on them of, federal judicial districts that were to be created by Congress and were subject to revision as the needs of the federal judiciary demanded. There was certainly no reason for the ratifying states in which vicinage was coterminous with the states’ boundaries to subject their courts to limits that might be created by Congress in the future.
Absent an express intent on the part of Congress and the ratifying states to make the vicinage clause applicable to the states, Duncan and Williams counsel that we look to whether this feature of the right to jury trial is so essential to the purpose of preserving the right to jury trial in the
We reach the same conclusion as to the right of trial by a jury of the vicinage, regardless of whether the jury is drawn from the county in which the offense was
Because a vicinage guarantee does not serve the purpose of protecting a criminal defendant from government oppression and is not necessary to ensure a fair trial, it is not an essential feature of the right to jury trial. For that reason we conclude that the vicinage clause of the
Other jurisdictions also have concluded that the vicinage requirement does not apply to the states. In State v. Bowman (Me. 1999) 588 A.2d 728, 731, the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine held that the vicinage clause of the
In Commonwealth v. Duteau (1981) 384 Mass. 321, 331-332 [424 N.E.2d 1119, 1126], the court stated that the vicinage requirement of the
even relevant to State prosecutions since it is generally agreed that the word “district” therein refers to the Federal judicial districts created by Congress.” It concluded, however, that the
In Bath v. State (Tex.App. 1997) 951 S.W.2d 11, 19, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a vicinage challenge based on the
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals undertook a more extensive examination of the history of the
“The determination whether a right covered by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments with respect to federal criminal proceedings is also protected against state action by the Fourteenth Amendment has been said to depend on whether the right is among those “fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions,” [citations]; whether it is “basic in our system of jurisprudence,” [citation]; and whether it is “a fundamental right, essential to a fair trial.” [Citations.]
“The right to jury trial in the Sixth Amendment was incorporated within the concept of due process and hence applicable to the states in serious criminal cases because a jury was deemed to give the defendant “an inestimable safeguard against the corrupt or overzealous prosecutor and against the compliant, biased, or eccentric judge.” Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. at 156, 88 S.Ct. at 1451. However, this does not mean that every feature of a jury trial as it existed at common law is necessarily applicable to the states. Unanimous jury decisions, constitutionally required in federal prosecutions, are not required in state trials. [Citation.] Also, because the common law jury composition of precisely twelve persons is considered an historical accident, it was held to be unnecessary to effect the purposes of the jury systеm and hence subject to change by the states. Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 90 S.Ct. 1893, 26 L.Ed.2d 446 (1970).” (Zicarelli v. Dietz, supra, 633 F.2d at pp. 320-321.)
Applying those tests, the court attempted to ascertain the purpose of the “previously ascertained by law” requirement, concluding that it was intended as a check on the ability of Congress to alter judicial districts in order to affect a criminal offense after its commission. (Zicarelli v. Dietz, supra, 633 F.2d at p. 323.) That purpose, the court concluded, had no applicability to the states, which did not have the power to establish or redistrict federal judicial districts. Those districts, the court held, were the districts to which the
In Caudill v. Scott (6th Cir. 1988) 857 F.2d 344, 345-346, after examination of the language of the Judiciary Act of 1789,
In Mareska v. State (Ind.Ct.App. 1989) 534 N.E.2d 246, 249-250, however, the Indiana Court of Appeals relied on the constitutional history recited and analyses utilized in Jones, supra, 9 Cal.3d 546, and on Alvarado v. State (Alaska 1971) 486 P.2d 891, to hold that trial by a jury from which residents of the location of the crime were systematically excluded violated a defendant“s
Petitioner also relies on decisions recognizing the interest of the community in which the charged crime was committed as a basis for requiring trial in that location. (See U.S. v. Dubon-Otero (D.P.R. 1999) 76 F.Supp. 2d 161, 165 [“To this day, the interest of a community in trying those who violate its laws remains a central tenet of our judicial system.“].) We find nothing in our constitutional history that would support a conclusion that the vicinage requirement of the
We thus find nothing in the decisions construing the vicinage provision of the
2. Article I, section 30, subdivision (a) of the California Constitution.
Because
The People argue that
We conclude that we need not resolve these conflicting views of
3. Vicinage rights under article I, section 16.
However, “[t]he constitutional guarantee does not require adherence to the letter of common law practice, and new procedures better suited to the efficient administration of justice may be substituted if there is no impairment of the substantial features of a jury trial. (People v. Hickman, 204 Cal. 470, 476 [268 P. 909, 270 P. 1117].)” (Dorsey v. Barba, supra, 38 Cal.2d at p. 356.)
We reject at the outset petitioner“s claim that there is not a sufficient nexus between the Santa Clara County offense and Riverside County to support trial in the latter county. Petitioner assumes that some element of the crime or preparation must occur in the county of trial, but that is not the rule.
Petitioner relies in part on Powell, supra, 87 Cal. 348, for his argument that
Subsequently, in People v. Martin (1922) 188 Cal. 281 [205 P. 121, 21 A.L.R. 1399], we upheld application of section 785 to the trial of a bigamy
Shortly thereafter the Court of Appeal upheld former section 787 against a vicinage claim. (Richardson, supra, 138 Cal.App. 404.) There, the defendant challenged the validity of former section 787 (see now
The Richardson court also reasoned that People v. Prather, supra, 134 Cal. 386, and Bradford v. Glen (1922) 188 Cal. 350 [205 P. 449] had implicitly overruled Powell. Bradford v. Glen did not do so, as the only question addressed there was whether escape while outside the walls of a prison on a work assignment in another county constituted escape from a prison within the meaning of former section 787. People v. Martin, supra, 188 Cal. 281, does support that conclusion, however. Although it agreed with Powell that trial in the vicinage was an incident of the common law right to jury trial, the Prather court permitted trial of the bigamy charge in a county other than that in which the offense was committed. In so doing, the court necessarily implied that it did not deem trial in the vicinage an essential attribute of the right to jury trial that was preserved by the California Constitution for all criminal charges.
The power of the Legislature to fix the place of trial of a criminal offense in a county other than the county of commission is reflected in several statutes, some of which (or their predecessors) were already in place at the time the Constitution of 1879 was adopted. (See, e.g.,
Nothing in the history of the California Constitution suggests that the drafters or the electorate intended to restrict the power of the Legislature reflected in those vicinage statutes already in effect in 1879, to designate the vicinage or place of trial of criminal offenses. That legislative power has been recognized repeatedly. (Jackson v. Superior Court (1970) 13 Cal.App.3d 440, 443 [91 Cal.Rptr. 565, 46 A.L.R.3d 290]; Richardson, supra, 138 Cal.App. at p. 407; People v. McGowan (1932) 127 Cal.App. 39, 43 [14 P.2d 1036]; Matter of McDonald (1912) 20 Cal.App. 641, 642 [129 P. 957].)
Accordingly, under the relevant California precedent, the right to a trial by a jury of the vicinage, as guaranteed by the California Constitution, is not violated by trial in a county having a reasonable relationship to the offense or to other crimes committed by the defendant against the same victim. We do not hold here that a crime may be tried anywhere. The Legislature“s powеr to designate the place for trial of a criminal offense is limited by the requirement that there be a reasonable relationship or nexus between the place designated for trial and the commission of the offense. Repeated abuse of the same child or spouse in more than one county creates that nexus.
The venue authorized by
We conclude that, insofar as
That does not end our inquiry, however. Although this is a facial challenge to
Petitioner argues that since the vicinage right implied in
We need not resolve these conflicting views, however, as we agree with the People that the vicinage right implied in
Although the
In Koppikus v. State Capitol Commissioners (1860) 16 Cal. 248, 253-254 (Koppikus), a civil action in equity in which the court held there was no right to jury trial to determine compensation for land taken for the site of the State Capitol, the court offered the contemporary understanding of the state constitutional right to jury trial: “The provision of the Constitution, that “the right of trial by jury shall be secured to all, and remain inviolate forever,” applies only to civil and criminal cases in which an issue of fact is joined. The language was used with reference to the right as it exists at common law. It is true, that the civil law was in force in this State at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, but its framers were, with few exceptions, from States where the common law prevails, and where the language used has a well-defined meaning. The people who, by their votes, adopted the Constitution, at least a vast majority of them, were also from countries where the common law is in force, and they looked upon the right secured as the right there known and there held inviolate. It is in this common law sense that the language has always been regarded by the Court of this State. It is a right “secured to all,” and “inviolate forever,” in cases in which it is exercised in the administration of justice according to the course of the common law, as that law is understood in the several States of the Union.” Nothing in the Koppikus opinion suggests that the drafters had the
The same is true of the court“s opinion in Powell, supra, 87 Cal.348, in which vicinage was in issue. There we looked to Blackstone, not the
Wheeler v. State (1869) 24 Wis. 52, stated that section 7 of article I of the Wisconsin Constitution was “somewhat similar” to the
There is no pattern in state constitutional viсinage clauses adopted before or at the time either the 1849 or 1879 Constitution was adopted to suggest that the delegates intended to replicate the
That being so, there is no state constitutional impediment to application of
III
Disposition
The judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed.
George, C. J., Kennard, J., and Chin, J., concurred.
WERDEGAR, J., Concurring.—I agree with my colleagues in the majority that
I do not necessarily agree, however, with certain aspects of the majority“s lengthy discussion that are unnecessary to the resolution of this matter. The majority opinion expounds at length, for example, on the
J., post, at p. 1080), in that trial of charges thereunder must be held in—and, thus, jurors will be drawn from—a county where at least one of the charged crimes occurred, it seems to me we should exercise caution to avoid unnecessarily disparaging such requirements.
For the foregoing reasons, I concur in the judgment.
CHIN, J.—I concur with the holding that
Although the California Constitution contains no specific reference to a right of vicinage, case law has interpreted
Circumstances have changed in California dramatically since 1849 as they relate to the question where a trial may and should be held. Much has happened in the century and a half since our Constitution was adopted. Improvements in transportation and communication have made the joint trial of related crimes that cross county lines much easier than formerly. The railroad has been developed, the automobile and airplane have been invented and arе widely used, and roads are vastly improved. The telephone has been invented and has come into common use; we are now in the age of the Internet. Our Constitution is flexible enough to adapt to these changes. It does not force us, at the dawn of the 21st century, to remain in the 19th century. The Legislature may enact reasonable reforms to take advantage of the fact that a joint trial is now more practical, while still preserving the substance of a jury trial.
The Legislature has responded to modern times by reducing the unavoidable burden of multiple trials on the judicial system, the public, the parties, and, above all, on victims like the six-year-old daughter here. Victims of crime, including children, and victims of domestic violence, must appear in court to confront the defendant and be subjected to cross-examination, even though that experience is often difficult and traumatic. (See, e.g., Alvarado v. Superior Court (2000) 23 Cal.4th 1121 [99 Cal.Rptr.2d 149, 5 P.3d 203].) But nothing in our Constitution forces these victims to do so repeatedly in county after county, trial after trial. Not only is joint trial of related crimes that cross county lines practical today, the Legislature may reasonably conclude it is also eminently desirable.
The legal climate has also changed as it relates to the right of vicinage. As the Court of Appeal below noted, “the original purpose of the vicinage requirement was to ensure that a case was heard by jurors who were familiar with the parties and the locality, and could apply their own personal knowledge in evaluating the testimony or other evidence. Nowadays, of course, the goal is to avoid a jury with such knowledge in favor of a set of 12 tabulae rasae in the jury box, applying only their common sense and intuition.” (See Hernandez v. Municipal Court (1989) 49 Cal.3d 713, 719-720 [263 Cal.Rptr. 513, 781 P.2d 547].) The goal today is fully served by allowing a Riverside County jury to render a verdict on a series of crimes, some committed in that county and some committed elsewhere.
Joint trial in a single county is also fair to defendants. Although defendant here complains about being tried far from the locale of the crimes, the issue is not whether he may be tried in Riverside County, for he surely may, at least for the crimes in that county. The issue is solely whether he may be tried for all of these related crimes in Riverside County, or must be tried in Riverside County for the crimes in that county and then tried separately in Santa Clara County. The Legislature can reasonably—and constitutionally—conclude that one trial, rather than multiple trials, one after the other, fully protects a defendant“s legitimate rights.
As the majority points out, a single crime involving multiple counties has long been triable in any county in which part of that crime occurred. For example, a murder charge may be tried in the county where the fatal injury was inflicted, or the victim died, or the body was found. (
Accordingly, I conclude that
Brown, J., concurred.