Crayton

In People v. Sohrab (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 89, 95-102 [ 68 Cal.Rptr.2d 749 ], the Court of Appeal held that in a felony proceeding a defendant’s waiver of the right to counsel in the municipal court did not encompass waiver of that right in proceedings subsequently conducted in the superior court, and that a trial court’s error in failing to readvise the defendant and obtain a new waiver in the superior court was reversible per se. In the present case, by contrast, another Court of Appeal held under somewhat similar circumstances that a trial court’s error in failing to read-vise a defendant of his right to counsel and to obtain a new waiver at his superior court arraignment was not reversible per se, but instead required that its prejudicial effect be analyzed under the harmless error standard set forth in People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818, 836 [ 299 P.2d 243 ] (Watson), that applies to most state law errors. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 13.)

We granted review to resolve the conflict in the decisions of the Courts of Appeal.

As we shall explain more fully below, we agree with the holding of the Court of Appeal in the present case that when a defendant charged with a…