People v. White CA3

DISCUSSION

In Wende, our Supreme Court held that “Courts of Appeal must conduct a review of the entire record whenever appointed counsel submits a brief on direct appeal which raises no specific issues or describes the appeal as frivolous.” (People v. Delgadillo (2022) 14 Cal.5th 216, 221.) The Wende procedure applies “to the first appeal as of right

1 Undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code.

2 and is compelled by the constitutional right to counsel under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” (Ibid.) In Conservatorship of Ben C. (2007) 40 Cal.4th 529, our Supreme Court held that neither the federal nor California constitutions require Wende procedures in an appeal from the imposition of a conservatorship and subsequent confinement in a locked treatment facility, pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code section 5000 et seq. (Ben C., at pp. 535-536.) The Ben C. court permitted appellate courts to dismiss such appeals as abandoned when: (1) appointed counsel files a brief setting out the applicable facts and the law and informing the court that counsel found no arguable issues; (2) appointed counsel informs the conservatee of the right to…