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instructions occurred in closed chambers. Thus, the Court of Appeal addressed the question of whether Newton voluntarily and intelligently waived his right to the instruction on unconsciousness, thereby foreclosing the complaint of error on appeal. Relying on the
California Supreme Court's earlier precedent, the Court of Appeal answered in the negative. Rather, a waiver of the instruction forecloses an appeal on that basis only where defense counsel "expresses a deliberate tactical purpose in suggesting, resisting, or acceding to an instruction" so as to "nullify the trial court's obligation to instruct in the cause." Conversely, defense counsel's neglect or mistake does not bar an appeal where the trial court retained an affirmative duty to instruct the jury on its own motion.
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ensuing physical altercation between
Officer Frey and Newton, Officer Heanes shot Newton in the midsection. Officer Heanes further testified that he heard additional shots fired, though there was some discrepancy as to the order of the gunshots in the altercation. A nearby bus driver, however, witnessed the shooting. The bus driver testified that Newton produced a concealed firearm that "went off," striking Officer Heanes and that Newton also used this firearm to fire several more shots into Officer Frey, who ultimately was pronounced dead on arrival at Merritt Hospital. Newton was later arrested that morning in the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland.
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use voter registration lists as the source of jurors is subject to the constitutional requirement that juries must reasonably reflect a cross-section of the community." Newton did demonstrate a statistical disparity between black persons serving on juries pooled from voter registration lists and the relative percentage of the eligible black population in
Alameda County. However, the Court of Appeal held that the statistical difference was not substantial enough to sustain a claim of underrepresentation of black persons on the trial jury.
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220:"resulted in unconstitutional discrimination against young persons, low income groups and black persons." However, the Court of Appeal reiterated that constitutional standards for selecting grand and petit jurors must not "systematically exclude, or substantially underrepresent, the members of any identifiable group in the community." On that basis, the Court of Appeal found that Newton failed to prove purposeful discrimination during grand jury selection.
201:, the United States Supreme Court concluded that "t is not required . . . that the jurors be totally ignorant of the facts and issues involved . . . t is sufficient is the juror can lay aside his impression or opinion and render a verdict on the evidence presented in court." Accordingly, Newton's defense counsel played a significant role in the
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that the failure to instruct violated Newton's constitutional right to have the jury determine all material issues based on the evidence. This case stands for the proposition that trial courts have an affirmative duty to instruct juries as to a defense of involuntary unconsciousness where there exists evidence that may support that conclusion.
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and upon its own motion, where the evidence so indicates." The Court reasoned that a state of diminished capacity and unconsciousness are matters of degree. The former provides a partial defense to first- or second-degree murder, while the latter is a complete defense to any criminal homicide, including voluntary manslaughter.
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Despite the defense's purported "withdrawal," the Court of Appeal found that the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury about unconsciousness as a complete defense. First, the Court found that "a trial court is under a duty to instruct upon diminished capacity, in the absence of a request
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With Judge Devine and Judge
Christian concurring, Judge Rattigan authored the Majority Opinion in reversing Newton's voluntary manslaughter conviction. The California Court of Appeal found prejudicial error in the trial court's failure to instruct the jury about Newton's potential unconsciousness as
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Finally, the Court found the possibility of additional prejudicial error given the trial court's apparent invitation to the defense to choose between a jury instruction on diminished capacity or unconsciousness. However, there was no direct proof a compelled choice since the deliberation over jury
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since it was drawn exclusively from
Alameda County voter registration lists, which he argued "results in underrepresentation of poor persons and black persons on juries, because such people are less likely to be registered voters." Here, the Court of Appeal stated that "the county's discretion to
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Given the facts, only a theory of unconsciousness would afford Newton a complete defense to criminal homicide consistent with his denial of the shootings altogether. Accordingly, the Court of Appeal failed to discern any "deliberate tactical purpose" in defense counsel's withdrawal of its initial
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Officer
Herbert Heanes, upon responding to the request for backup, asked Newton to step outside of the vehicle while Officer Frey informed Newton of his arrest. Officer Heanes testified that he heard a gunshot, which struck his arm, as Officer Frey accompanied Newton to the patrol car. During an
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identified and stopped a Black
Panther vehicle driven by Huey P. Newton along with an unidentified passenger. Officer Frey conducted the stop on the basis of outstanding warrants issued to a Laverne Williams for parking violations associated with the vehicle. Meanwhile, Officer Frey requested an
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reversed Newton's conviction due to prejudicial error stemming from the trial court's failure to instruct the jury as to the possibility of involuntary unconsciousness as a complete defense to the charges. Though Newton's attorney arguably withdrew the defense at trial, the Court nonetheless held
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While the
Majority ultimately held that the trial court erroneously failed to instruct the jury on Newton's potential defense of unconsciousness, the trial record actually showed that the defense's request for the instruction was "withdrawn" upon deliberation in chambers. According to the trial
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Furthermore, the Court held that the trial court's instruction on diminished capacity did not neutralize the error in failing to instruct the jury on unconsciousness. Instead, the Court concluded that "evidence of both states is not antithetical; jury instructions on the effect of both will be
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At his murder trial, Newton testified in his own defense that
Officer Frey hurled racial epithets at him and struck him in the face. Newton further testified that after Officer Frey allegedly brandished his firearm, he experienced a "sensation like . . . boiling hot soup had been spilled on my
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Nonetheless, Newton appealed his eventual conviction for voluntary manslaughter on the basis of unconstitutional grand and petit jury selection procedures, in addition to the failure to instruct the jury on a defense of unconsciousness. While the latter provided sufficient grounds to reverse
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Expounding on that reasoning, the Court of Appeal clarified that a state of unconsciousness, under the law, "need not reach the physical dimensions commonly associated with the term (coma, inertia, incapability of locomotion or manual action, and so on); it can exist . . . where the subject
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physically acts in fact but is not, at the time, conscious of acting." Thus, Newton's testimony coupled with expert testimony regarding "reflex shock reaction" to abdominal gunshot wounds constituted sufficient evidence for at least the possibility of a finding of legal unconsciousness.
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Finally, the Court of Appeal also rejected Newton's claim that the controversial nature of the trial, which pitted a black defendant against white police officers, required that at least one resident of a "black ghetto" serve as a petit juror. Again, the Court of Appeal noted that the
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stomach." Newton testified that after hearing a "volley of shots," he remembered nothing else until he arrived at Kaiser
Hospital. Newton "expressly testified that he was 'unconscious or semiconscious' during this interval." In order to corroborate that testimony, the defense called
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required where the evidence supports a finding of either." Thus, the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury to consider the possibility that Newton was unconscious at the time of the shooting, thereby lacking the requisite mental state—
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in the fatal shooting of a California police officer. On appeal, the Court of Appeal of California (First District, Fourth Division) reversed the defendant's conviction and ordered a new trial. The Government's petition for hearing by the
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The murder trial of Huey Newton, co-founder and Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, was mired in controversy given the extensive pretrial media coverage that purportedly linked Newton to the fatal shooting of Officer Frey. In
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was denied on July 29, 1970. Following two subsequent mistrials, the District Attorney declined to pursue a fourth trial, thus dismissing the charges against Newton.
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transcript, Newton and his defense attorney both agreed to the trial court's decision to instruct the jury on diminished capacity instead of unconsciousness.
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request for the relevant jury instructions. Therefore, the Court of Appeal held that Newton could raise the prejudicial error claim on appeal.
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additional patrol while investigating the apparent discrepancy between the driver's identity and the registration for the vehicle.
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Newton's conviction, the Court of Appeal still addressed—and denied—the charges of improper jury selection in the murder trial.
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The Superior Court of Alameda County convicted defendant Huey P. Newton of
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The Sky's the Limit: People V. Newton the Real Trial of the 20th Century?
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In the early morning hours of October 28, 1967, Officer John Frey of the
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Criminal Procedure 2007: Principles, Policies, and Perspectives
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selection, Newton argued that the pertinent statutes in
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Joseph A. Rattigan, Preston Devine, Winslow Christian
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383:Website to the short documentary
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104:. The
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