concluding that the trial court determines whether a previous conviction qualifies as a "strike" for purposes of California's Three Strikes law and that it "may look to the entire record of the [prior] conviction, but no further" (emphasis and internal quotation marks omitted)
How later courts described this case
- concluding that the trial court determines whether a previous conviction qualifies as a "strike" for purposes of California's Three Strikes law and that it "may look to the entire record of the [prior] conviction, but no further" (emphasis and internal quotation marks omitted)
- "The court [may], however, instruct the jury to the effect that the defendant is the person whose name appears on the documents admitted to establish the conviction. This procedure would appear to leave the jury little to do except to determine whether those documents are authentic and, if so, are sufficient to establish that the convictions the defendant suffered are indeed the ones alleged. Whether this role makes sense is not for us to say. If the Legislature wants to provide a greater, or more precisely defined, role for the jury, or chooses to eliminate the jury altogether ... it may still do so.'1
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
KENNARD, J.
I dissent.
For the reasons stated in Justice Werdegar’s concurring and dissenting opinion in this case, and previously expressed in her dissenting opinion in People v. Wiley (1995) 9 Cal.4th 580, 595-605 [ 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 347 , 889 P.2d 541 ], which I joined, defendant has a right to a jury trial on the issue of whether his prior convictions were for serious felonies. Thus, in precluding the jury from determining that issue, the trial court here erred. Unlike Justice Werdegar, however, I do not consider the error to be harmless. As I explained in my dissenting opinion in People v. Vera (1997) 15 Cal.4th 269, 282-286 [ 62 Cal.Rptr.2d 754 , 934 P.2d 1279 ] (dis. opn. of Kennard, J.)), “[t]he denial of jury trial is a structural error that can never be harmless, no matter how strong the evidence of guilt.” (Id. at p. 286.)
Mosk, J., concurred.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied September 29, 1999.