In Gardner v. Appellate Division of the Superior Court, the Supreme Court today finds a state constitutional right to appointed counsel when a misdemeanor defendant is the respondent in a prosecution appeal of an order suppressing evidence. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Leondra Kruger says that the state constitution’s right-to-counsel provision “extend[s] more broadly than its federal counterpart, particularly in relation to misdemeanor cases” and that the need for assistance of counsel “may very well be greater during certain pre- and posttrial events than during the trial itself.” The court leaves unresolved “a defendant’s right to appointed counsel for purposes of bringing a pretrial appeal of an adverse suppression ruling.”
The court’s finding of a state constitutional right regardless of the federal constitution complements an entreaty Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky made directly to the court last week.
The court reverses the Fourth District, Division Two, Court of Appeal. This is the second time the Supreme Court granted review in this case. The first time was a grant-and-transfer after the appellate court had summarily denied the defendant’s writ petition.