Lomboy

Must the court advise a defendant the maximum possible length of commitment following her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity exceeds the longest term of imprisonment to which she could be sentenced for the underlying crime?

*69 We hold advisement of the disparity in the lengths of possible custodial consequences is essential to insure a defendant knows the true potential of such a plea even though she may be generally aware “some” institutionalization is possible. Finding no such advisement here we remand for further proceedings for the following reasons.

Charged with murder for knifing a friend, Mary Rodena Lomboy personally pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity after being advised she could be confined in a mental institution for life if convicted of murder but found insane at the time of the killing.

Three months later she waived jury trial on both phases of trial at which time her counsel alerted the trial court to the probability the guilt phase would be submitted, in part, on the transcript of preliminary proceedings. These submissions were an apparent exchange for the prosecution’s stipulation limiting the trial court to finding Lomboy…

I must respectfully dissent.

When Lomboy entered her pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity (NGI) on the original charge of murder, she was advised that by entering the NGI plea “if ultimately found to be true [she] would spend a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of life in a *74 state hospital.” She replied that she understood this. 1 Under People v. Vanley (1974) 41 Cal.App.3d 846 , at page 856 [ 116 Cal.Rptr. 446 ], such an admonition is required by In re Yurko (1974) 10 Cal.3d 857 , at page 864 [ 112 Cal.Rptr. 513 , 519 P.2d 516 ], and because “a person who pleads not guilty by reason of insanity may figure that the plea is simply another way to ‘beat the rap’” when in fact long confinement is possible. 2 The reasons for giving the admonition are different from those involved in the Boykin-Tahl situation where the admonition is required because constitutional rights are being waived when a guilty plea is entered. We here deal with a typical dual plea and trial situation involving a not guilty plea followed by a trial of the guilt issue where presumably Lomboy first desired to put the people to their burden of proof on the guilt issue and waived no…

Must the court advise a defendant the maximum possible length of commitment following her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity exceeds the longest term of imprisonment to which she could be sentenced for the underlying crime?

We hold advisement of the disparity in the lengths of possible custodial consequences is essential to insure a defendant knows the true potential of such a plea even though she may be generally aware "some" institutionalization is possible. Finding no such advisement here we remand for further proceedings for the following reasons.

Charged with murder for knifing a friend, Mary Rodena Lomboy personally pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity after being advised she could be confined in a mental institution for life if convicted of murder but found insane at the time of the killing.

Three months later she waived jury trial on both phases of trial at which time her counsel alerted the trial court to the probability the guilt phase would be submitted, in part, on the transcript of preliminary proceedings. These submissions were an apparent exchange for the prosecution's stipulation limiting the trial court to finding…