People v. Rucker1/29/1980
SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
Crim. No. 20682
1980.CA.41142 ; 162 Cal. Rptr. 13; 26 Cal. 3d 368; 605 P.2d 843
January 29, 1980
THE PEOPLE, PLAINTIFF AND RESPONDENT,
v.
WILLIAM ELLIOTT RUCKER, DEFENDANT AND APPELLANT
Superior Court of San Mateo County, No. C 6587, Gerald E. Ragan, Judge.
Quin Denvir and Paul Halvonik, State Public Defenders, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, Clifton R. Jeffers, Chief Assistant State Public Defender, B. E. Bergesen III and Linda Feldman, Deputy State Public Defenders, for Defendant and Appellant.
Roger S. Ruffin as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant.
Evelle J. Younger and George Deukmejian, Attorneys General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Edward P. O'Brien, Assistant Attorney General, W. Eric Collins and Dane R. Gillette, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
Stanley M. Roden, District Attorney (Santa Barbara), Patrick J. McKinley and Gerald McC. Franklin, Deputy District Attorneys, as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.
Opinion by Bird, C. J., with Tobriner, Mosk and Newman, JJ., concurring. Separate concurring and dissenting opinion by Richardson, J., with Clark and Manuel, JJ., concurring.
Bird
This appeal raises an important issue concerning whether the admission of evidence of two interviews between appellant and law
enforcement officers, which was offered to rebut a defense of diminished capacity, violates the privilege against self-incrimination (U.S. Const., 5th Amend.; Cal. Const., art. I, § 15) and the principles first enunciated in Miranda v. Arizona (1966) 384 U.S. 436 [16 L.Ed.2d 694, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 10 A.L.R.3d 974].
I
On July 31, 1976, some time between 7 and 7:30 p.m. a clerk at a See's Candy Store in Redwood City was shot and killed during a robbery. There were no eyewitnesses, but there was strong circumstantial evidence that appellant fired the fatal shot. The only contested issue presented to the jury for decision was appellant's intent at the time of the incident.
The prosecution's theory at trial was that appellant was guilty of first degree murder since the killing either was committed with malice aforethought in a willful, deliberate, premeditated manner or was committed in the course of a robbery. Extensive evidence was introduced by the defense to establish that at the time of the killing, appellant suffered from diminished capacity since his intoxication from alcohol and other drugs made it impossible for him to harbor malice, premeditate, deliberate, or form the specific intent necessary to commit the underlying felony of robbery. This evidence, which the trial judge indicated amounted to an "excellent" defense, included the testimony of lay and expert witnesses as well as the results of a blood test which showed that appellant's blood-alcohol level at the time of the offense was between 0.25 and 0.30 percent.
The prosecution attempted to rebut the defense of diminished capacity by introducing evidence of two interviews with appellant by two police officers and a probation officer. The circumstances surrounding the interviews are somewhat fragmented since the prosecution successfully objected to appellant's repeated requests for an evidentiary hearing on the admissibility of this evidence. The prosecutor claimed that the legalit
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