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People v. Martin9/14/1982
error of sentencing far too harshly."
Furthermore, Martin says "the sentence seems unduly harsh when compared to sentences which other judges have received." In the only other case in which a judge has been convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice (People v. Hardeman (1966) 244 Cal. App. 2d 1 [53 Cal. Rptr. 168], cert. den. 387 U.S. 912 [18 L.Ed.2d 634, 87 S.Ct. 1700]), the judge received a suspended sentence, and the usual punishment for wilful misconduct in office by a judge is removal from office or censure. (In re Stevens (1982) 31 Cal. 3d 403 [183 Cal. Rptr. 48, 645 P.2d 99]; Cannon v. Commission on Judicial Qualifications (1975) 14 Cal. 3d 678 [122 Cal. Rptr. 778, 537 P.2d 898]; Spruance v. Commission on Judicial Qualifications (1975) 13 Cal. 3d 778 [119 Cal. Rptr. 841, 523 P.2d 1209]; Geiler v. Commission on Judicial Qualifications (1973) 10 Cal. 3d 270 [110 Cal. Rptr. 201, 515 P.2d 1].)
Of course, by the time Martin was convicted, removal or censure was not an option, since Martin was retired before the indictment was even filed, and removal or censure were not within the trial court's power in any case.
Further, the fact that the court selected one of the sentences provided in section 182 does not mean that the court was prejudiced against Martin; the court was simply exercising the discretion granted to it under the statute. In fact, the sentence selected by the court was not the harshest it could have selected, since the court had the option of imposing a state prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.
What Martin is really saying is that he should be treated more favorably because he was a judge. It was apparently the trial court's opinion that judges and attorneys should be punished like everyone else when they commit felonies. The sentence imposed in this case was one of the sentencing choices provided by statute and was not improper.
Appellant Brown's Contentions
Brown's only contention on appeal rests upon the argument that he basically did nothing wrong. This argument is briefly summarized as follows:
A judge may do anything short of ignoring statutes, violating accepted practice, or accepting a bribe and be immune from criminal prosecution. As stated by Brown: "A judge is law unto himself in so far as the formality or lack of it with which he will enter a judgment, and indeed in so far as he will interpret statutes, follow precedent, or perform any other judicial function. In the absence of judicial corruption, which the statutes limit to bribery, a court has total immunity in carrying out its judicial duties. The only check upon it is removal from office when it fails to fulfill its duties in a manner which the Judicial Council deems proper. Short of accepting a bribe, a court, so long as it sits, can dispense the law or dispense with the law, and cannot be held to answer for its judgment or practice."
One of the things which judges are permitted to do is to be persuaded by lawyers, as lawyers are permitted to persuade judges. As stated by Brown: "He [Martin] may have been persuaded by lies and charm. He may have been persuaded by his own laziness and his confidence in the legal knowledge of the attorney who did the persuading." So long as Martin was not persuaded by bribery, says Brown, his actions are not criminal, and they cannot be made criminal by resort to the criminal conspiracy statute. Since Martin's actions were not c
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