People v. Superior Court of Marin County

The People petition for a writ of mandate to compel respondent court to set aside its order of August 3, 1976, which directed that evidence of real party’s prior conviction for violation of section 187 of the Penal Code (murder) be excluded from real party’s forthcoming trial for violation of section 4500 of the Penal Code (assault with a deadly weapon by a life inmate).

Respondent court found that defense counsel representing real party in the proceedings which led to his prior conviction for murder had failed to investigate and present a possible crucial defense. The court concluded that evidence of the prior murder conviction should be excluded from real party’s forthcoming trial because of the “constitutional inadequacy of defendant’s trial counsel” in the prior proceeding.

We have concluded (1) that respondent court had no jurisdiction to entertain or hear a pretrial motion to strike a prior conviction based upon the ground of ineffective assistance of counsel in the proceedings leading to the prior conviction, and (2) that respondent court had no jurisdiction to entertain or to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the motion to exclude evidence of the prior…