Statements by Justice Goodwin Liu dissenting from denials of review were a factor in at least two recent legislative actions. One of those actions — Senate Bill 395, generally requiring that minors under 16 consult with an attorney before a custodial interrogation — was passed nine days ago and was sent to Governor Jerry Brown on Friday.
Also on Friday, the Los Angeles Times editorialized in favor of the bill. Mentioning Justice Liu’s 2015 dissent in the In re Joseph H. case, the Times says that “the governor should sign SB 395 as consistent with California’s gradual and grudging acknowledgment of an obvious truth — children are not little adults, and criminal laws should be crafted with their different mental capacities in mind.”
Errata: a recent post about the limited impact that Justice Kathryn Werdegar’s replacement might have on the outcome of Supreme Court cases failed to note that Joseph H. is another one of the few cases in which Justice Werdegar voting with the three current Governor Brown appointees would have made a difference in the result. In that case (involving a 10-year-old who shot and killed his neo-Nazi father and who was found by the Court of Appeal to have knowingly waived his Miranda rights), Justices Liu, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, and Leondra Kruger all voted for review (Justice Cuéllar signed Justice Liu’s dissent; Justice Kruger did not), but couldn’t garner a fourth vote. Had Justice Werdegar agreed to hear the case, Senate Bill 395 might not be on the Governor’s desk right now.
