The Supreme Court today affirms the death penalty in People v. Miracle for a gang murder to which the defendant pleaded guilty while representing himself, although with the assistance and consent of advisory counsel. The main issue is whether the guilty plea was valid despite a statute that precludes such a plea in a capital case “without the consent of the defendant’s counsel.”
The court’s opinion by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye holds that the guilty plea passed muster because the plea statute “does not foreclose an interpretation of ‘counsel’ that encompasses advisory counsel who has been assigned to fulfill the responsibilities of counsel under” the statute. Otherwise, the court said, the statute might not be “compatible with defendant’s constitutional rights” to represent himself.
Justice Goodwin Liu dissents. He concludes that the word “counsel” in the statute “means an attorney who represents the defendant; it does not encompass advisory counsel” and that “the application of [the statute] to the circumstances here presents no constitutional infirmity.”