BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1272
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Date of Hearing: January 12, 2016
Counsel: Sandra Uribe
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Bill Quirk, Chair
AB
1272 (Grove) - As Amended January 4, 2016
SUMMARY: Requires the court to make reasonable efforts to avoid
scheduling a case involving a crime committed against a person
with a developmental disability when the prosecutor has another
trial set.
EXISTING LAW:
1)Entitles both the prosecution and a defendant have a right to
a speedy trial. (Cal. Const., Art. I, § 13.)
2)Provides that absent good cause, a defendant is entitled to
have felony charges against him or her dismissed if he or she
is not brought to trial within 60 days after arraignment.
(Pen. Code, §§ 1049.5 & 1382, subd. (a)(2).)
3)Allows a trial court to grant continuances only upon a showing
of "good cause." (Pen. Code, § 1050, subd. (e).)
4)States that neither the convenience of the parties nor a
stipulation of the parties is in and of itself good cause.
(Pen. Code, § 1050, subd. (e).)
5)Provides that scheduling conflicts of a prosecutor in specific
types of cases does constitute good cause for a continuance.
(Pen. Code, § 1050, subd. (g)(2).)
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6)Requires the court to make reasonable efforts to avoid
scheduling a murder, sexual assault, child abuse, or career
criminal prosecution case when the prosecutor has another
trial set. (Pen. Code, § 1048.1.)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: According to the author, "People with
developmental disabilities are victimized by violent crimes at
much higher rates than the general population. The
perpetrators often go free for reasons that include the
difficulties with prosecuting these complex cases.
"Current law requires a court to make reasonable efforts to
avoid setting a trial for certain complex and
difficult-to-prosecute crimes on the same day that the
prosecutor is scheduled for another trial. This allows
district attorneys to assign specialized prosecutors to these
cases.
"This bill will extend this flexibility to cases of crimes
against people with developmental disabilities."
2)Trial Continuances: A defendant has a right to a speedy trial
guaranteed by both the Sixth Amendment of the United States
Constitution and by the California Constitution. To implement
an accused's constitutional right to a speedy trial, the
Legislature has prescribed certain time periods within which
an accused must be brought to trial. (See Pen. Code, § 1382.)
The California Supreme Court has held that a delay without
good cause of more than the 60-day time period is a
legislatively determined violation of a defendant's
constitutional right to a speedy trial. (Sykes v. Superior
Court (1973) 9 Cal.3d 83, 89.)
Good cause is not defined in statute; rather, what constitutes
good cause depends on the totality of the circumstances in
each case. (People v. Johnson (1980) 26 Cal.3d 557, 570.)
Generally, unavailability of the prosecutor due to calendar
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conflicts does not constitute good cause in and of itself.
(See e.g., Batey v. Superior Court (1977) 71 Cal.App.3d 952.)
However, the Legislature has determined that when the
prosecutor is unavailable to try a case involving murder,
career criminal prosecutions, child abuse, domestic violence,
certain sex offenses, and stalking, this constitutes automatic
good cause for a continuance of up to 10 days. (Pen. Code, §
1050, subd. (g)(2).)
Existing law also directs judges to take reasonable efforts to
avoid double setting a prosecutor for trial where one of the
cases involves a charge of murder, sexual assault, child abuse
or a career criminal prosecution. (Pen. Code, § 1048.1.)
This bill would add cases in which it is charged that the
victim is a person with a developmental disability, as
defined, to these provisions. It does not provide that
automatic good cause for continuance of a criminal trial
includes cases where a victim is a person with a developmental
disability. The court retains discretion to manage its trial
calendar.
3)Argument in Support: According to the Arc and United Cerebral
Palsy California Collaboration, the sponsor of this bill,
"Current law requires a court to make reasonable efforts to
avoid setting a trial for certain complex and
difficult-to-prosecute crimes on the same day that the
prosecutor is scheduled for another trial. This allows
district attorneys to assign specialized prosecutors to these
cases.
"The bill will extend this flexibility to cases of crimes
against people with developmental disabilities.
"Supporting an identical provision of SB 663 (Lara) of 2014,
the Judicial Council wrote:
'The council believes that cases involving crimes
against persons with developmental disabilities are
very difficult, very sensitive, and much more
challenging than other criminal cases. Thus, the
council believes that it is reasonable to require
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courts to make reasonable efforts to avoid setting
these trials on the same day that another case is set
for trial involving the same prosecuting attorney.
The council also notes that the population to which SB
663 applies is not so large that it would make it
difficult for the courts to make this accommodation.
SB 663 also gives court flexibility because it
requires courts to make "reasonable efforts" to make
this accommodation rather than requiring courts to do
so in all instances.'"
4)Prior Legislation:
a) SB 663 (Lara) of the 2013-2014 Legislative session would
have, in part, added cases in which it is charged that the
victim is developmentally disabled to the provisions
directing courts to make reasonable efforts to not set
conflicting trial dates for a prosecutor. SB 663 was
amended to an unrelated subject matter.
b) AB 501 (Nakano), Chapter 382, Statutes of 1999, required
reasonable efforts to be made by the court in scheduling a
trial date for a vertical prosecution career criminal case
to avoid setting that trial on the same day another trial
is set for the same prosecuting attorney.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
The Arc and United Cerebral Palsy California Collaboration
(Sponsor)
Opposition
None
Analysis Prepared
by: Sandy Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744, Sandy
Uribe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
AB 1272
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