On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in People v. Miracle and People v. Buenrostro, the last two undecided cases from the September calendar. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here.)
Miracle is an automatic direct appeal from a January 2006 judgment of death. Fourth District, Division Three, Court of Appeal Justice Raymond Ikola is the pro tem.
Without vacating submission so as to reset the 90-day filing period, the court in Miracle asked for post-argument briefing on this question: Assuming that the term “counsel” in the second sentence of Penal Code section 1018 does not encompass advisory counsel, does the statute violate the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution (see McCoy v. Louisiana (2018) 584 U.S. __ [138 S. Ct. 1500]; Faretta v. California (1975) 422 U.S. 806) in light of the Eighth Amendment’s requirement of reliability in death judgments (see Woodson v. North Carolina (1976) 428 U.S. 280; Beck v. Alabama (1980) 447 U.S. 625; People v. Bloom (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1194, 1228)?
Buenrostro is an automatic direct appeal from an October 1998 judgment of death. Third District Justice Louis Mauro is the pro tem.
The opinions can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.