Price

Penal Code section 784.7 1 permits the trial of more than one of several offenses enumerated therein in any county in which one such offense occurred if the defendant and victim are the same in all of the charged offenses. It thus creates a venue for trial of some offenses in a county other than that in which those offenses occurred. As a result the jury will not be selected from residents of that county.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to be tried “by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law.” Article I, section 16 of the California Constitution (hereafter article I, section 16) has been construed as implicitly reserving a similar, but not necessarily coextensive, vicinage right.

The Court of Appeal rejected petitioner’s argument that section 784.7 is invalid because it denies defendants the right to trial by a jury drawn from residents of the area in which the charged offense allegedly was committed. We granted review to consider whether trial in a venue authorized by section 784.7 violates either…

I concur with the holding that Penal Code section 784.7 (section 784.7) comports with state and federal constitutional requirements. I agree that the Sixth Amendment’s vicinage provision does not apply to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, and that the statute does not violate the state Constitution, specifically California Constitution, article I, section 16.1 write to explain further why I believe section 784.7 is valid under the state Constitution.

Although the California Constitution contains no specific reference to a right of vicinage, case law has interpreted article I, section 16, which gives defendants the right to a jury trial, as including by implication the right to trial by a jury selected from the vicinage or county. (E.g., People v. Hill (1992) 3 Cal.4th 959, 984 [ 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 475 , 839 P.2d 984 ].) “This section guarantees the right of jury trial as it existed at common law when the Constitution was adopted in 1849.” (Dorsey v. Barba (1952) 38 Cal.2d 350, 355 [ 240 P.2d 604 ].) But this guarantee does not mean that all features of the jury trial right must remain exactly as they were in 1849. The right remains flexible enough to adapt to changed…

Grover Trask, District Attorney, and Elaina Gambera Bentley, Deputy District Attorney, for Real Party in Interest.

Penal Code section 784.7 [1] permits the trial of more than one of several offenses enumerated therein in any county in which one such offense occurred if the defendant and victim are the same in all of the charged offenses. It thus creates a venue for trial of some offenses in a county other than that in which those offenses occurred. As a result the jury will not be selected from residents of that county.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to be tried "by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law." Article I, section 16 of the California Constitution (hereafter article I, section 16) has been construed as implicitly reserving a similar, but not necessarily coextensive, vicinage right.

The Court of Appeal rejected petitioner's argument that section 784.7 is invalid because it denies defendants the right to trial by a jury drawn from residents of the area in which the charged offense…