People v. Moore

Opinion

FLEMING, J.

Appeal from a judgment of conviction for second degree murder and grand theft. The facts and appellant’s arguments, except the one discussed below, are covered in an appendix which we have certified for nonpublication.

Appellant’s remaining argument is that the trial court committed prejudicial error by failing to admonish the jury at a time of a 10-minute mid-morning recess not to discuss the case or form any opinion on it. This argument is based on the provisions of Penal Code section 1122: “The jury must also, at each

adjournment

of the court, whether permitted to separate dr kept in charge of officers, be admonished by the court that it is their duty not to converse among themselves or with anyone else on any subject connected with the trial, or to form or express any opinion thereon until the cause is finally submitted to them.” (Italics added.) Appellant in effect argues that at each break in the proceedings, no matter how abbreviated or for what cause, the admonition must be given.

We do not agree. Rather we construe the word

adjournment

.in the section to mean a continuance of the proceedings to another day. Any break in the proceedings for a lesser period than a day is properly termed a recess; it does not amount to an adjournment within the meaning of the section and does not require the admonition of the jury in the manner specified in section 1122.

The word

adjournment

traces back through Medieval English to Old French for day (journee), to Late Latin adiumare [ad (to) + diurnus (daily)], to Latin for day (dies). The idea of day remains paramount throughout these various antecedents, and we find it made explicit in a maxim of the Justinian Code, which declares that “an adjournment is to appoint a day or give a day.” (4 Inst. 27, quoted in Black’s Law Dictionary (4th ed.) p. 62.) Thus to adjourn is to continue proceedings to- another

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