Proctor

Following the guilt phase of a jury trial held in Shasta County, defendant William Arnold Proctor was found guilty of various offenses committed against Mrs. Bonita Stendal: first degree murder (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 189), 1 forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (2)), and first degree burglary (§ 460). The jury also found that defendant inflicted great bodily injury (§ 12022.8), and found true the special circumstance allegations that he committed the murder in the course of rape (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)), in the course of first degree burglary (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(vii)), and with the infliction of torture (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(18)). After the court declared a mistrial as to the penalty phase of the trial, defendant’s motion for change of venue was granted as to that phase, and after further proceedings a jury in Sacramento County imposed the death penalty. After denying defendant’s motion for modification of the verdict, the court sentenced defendant to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

Facts

The evidence at trial established that on the evening of April 21, 1982, defendant entered the residence of Mrs. Bonita…

I concur in the judgment. I write separately to emphasize that the authority of trial courts to comment on the evidence is subject to strict limitations and must be exercised with extreme caution, and to express my view that, consistent with this court’s well-established case law, factor (j) of Penal Code section 190.3 cannot be an aggravating circumstance.

I.

Our Constitution (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 10), as well as our statutes (Pen. Code, §§ 1093, subd. (f), 1127), grant trial courts the authority to comment on the testimony and credibility of witnesses. But there is a countervailing consideration. The Constitutions of both the United States (U.S. Const., Amend. VI) and the State of California (Cal. Const., art. I, § 16) also grant a criminal defendant the right to a jury trial, and that right requires that the jury be the exclusive arbiter of questions of fact and the credibility of witnesses. (See e.g., People v. Rodriguez (1986) 42 Cal.3d 730, 766 [ 230 Cal.Rptr. 667 , 726 P.2d 113 ]; People v. Friend (1958) 50 Cal.2d 570, 577-578 [ 327 P.2d 97 ]; People v. Ottey (1936) 5 Cal.2d 714, 728 [ 56 P.2d 193 ].)

There is an inherent tension between the authority of a trial court…

I dissent.

In my view, the court committed reversible error by commenting as it did on the evidence and defendant’s credibility.

I

Trial on the question of guilt or innocence was conducted in late 1982 in rural Shasta County. It was charged that, on April 21 or 22 of that year, defendant burglarized the residence of Bonita Bergh Stendal in the small mountain community of Burney and there proceeded to rape and murder the woman; it was alleged that he intentionally inflicted great bodily injury on Stendal in the course of the burglary and the rape, and that he murdered her under the special circumstances of felony-murder-burglary, felony-murder-rape, and torture murder.

Between December 8 and 14, the People presented evidence to establish defendant’s guilt. Included were three palm prints at Stendal’s residence: a bloody and visible print from defendant’s right hand, and two dry and latent prints, one from his right hand, the other from his left. Also offered were various extrajudicial statements he had made relating to his activities and whereabouts on April 21 and 22.

*560 On December 14, defendant presented evidence. He took the stand to deny involvement in the crimes and to…

Following the guilt phase of a jury trial held in Shasta County, defendant William Arnold Proctor was found guilty of various offenses committed against Mrs. Bonita Stendal: first degree murder (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 189), [1] forcible rape (§ 261, subd. (2)), and first degree burglary (§ 460). The jury also found that defendant inflicted great bodily injury (§ 12022.8), and found true the special circumstance allegations that he committed the murder in the course of rape (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(iii)), in the course of first degree burglary (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(vii)), and with the infliction of torture (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(18)). After the court declared a mistrial as to the penalty phase of the trial, defendant's motion for change of venue was granted as to that phase, and after further proceedings a jury in Sacramento County imposed the death penalty. After denying defendant's motion for modification of the verdict, the court sentenced defendant to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.

The evidence at trial established that on the evening of April 21, 1982, defendant entered the residence of Mrs. Bonita…