People v. Finley

HENSHAW; J.

The appellant while undergoing a life sentence in the state prison at Folsom was indicted under section 246. of the Penal Code, tried upon the indictment, found guilty and the death penalty imposed. From the judgment and from the order denying his motion for a new trial he prosecutes this appeal.

The section of the code defining his crime is in the following language: “Every person undergoing a life sentence in a

[61]

state prison of this state, who, with malice aforethought, commits an assault upon the person of another with a deadly weapon or instrument, or by any means or force likely to produce great bodily injury, is punishable with death.”

The principal contentions of the appellant, advanced in different forms, resolve themselves into two propositions, both going to the constitutionality and validity of section 246 of the Penal Code. The first of these propositions is that it denies to the defendant the equal protection of the law guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States. Second, that it contravenes the provisions of section 11 of article I of the constitution of this state declaring that all laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation.

As to the genesis and origin of this comparatively new section of our Penal Code, it has long been a part of judicial knowledge, of legislative knowledge, and, indeed, of general knowledge, that convicts in penal institutions, undergoing sentences for life, constitute a most reckless and dangerous class. The conditions of their sentences destroy their hopes and with the destruction of hope all bonds of restraint are broken and there follows a recklessness leading to brutal crimes. These crimes became the more frequent as the impoteney of the law to mete out adequate punishment for them was discerned. They were crimes of violence committed not alone against fellow inmates, but upon the custodians, officers, and guards of the institutions. The series of bloody and savage escapes and attempts to escape from the state prisons, which attempts were usually organized and headed by “life-termers,” form a part of the history of our state. Indeed, it is known that at times the prison officials have deemed it wise to clothe the “life-termers” in a characteristic garb, as a red shirt, that they might be the better watched throughout the day and the more readily picked out by the armed guards in eases of an emeute. Under this well-recognized condition of affairs it seemed expedient to the legislature to meet the situation by the enactment of section 246 of the Penal Code.