Webster

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction of first degree murder following a retrial. (People v. Webster, 254 Cal.App.2d 743 [ 62 Cal.Rptr. 476 ].) The sordid facts surrounding the rape-murder of Diane Harley, appellant’s victim, are detailed in the decision of the Court of Appeal reversing appellant’s first conviction under the compulsion of Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 [ 12 L.Ed.2d 977 , 84 S.Ct. 1758 ], and People v. Dorado, 62 Cal.2d 338 [ 42 Cal.Rptr. 169 , 398 P.2d 361 ]. (People v. Webster, supra, pp. 745-751 ). We set forth only facts relevant to the contentions raised in this appeal.

Appellant first contends that a statement made by him in March or April 1964, to Mr. Albert Ng, was erroneously admitted on retrial and created reversible error per se. Mr. Ng was a corrections counsellor employed by the State Department of Corrections and, at the time the statement in question was made, failed to administer the admonition required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 [ 16 L.Ed.2d 694 , 86 S.Ct. 1602 , 10 A.L.R.3d 974 ].

Mr. Ng related the statement as follows;

Appellate courts have forthrightly criticized the admission of statements by a defendant such…