The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Bruce Lee Blackbur — Cantil-Sakauye, J., Concurring in Part and Dissenting…

Summary

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye concurs in the statutory interpretation adopted in parts I through III of the court's opinion but dissents from its harmless-error analysis. She would hold that the trial court's failure to personally advise Blackburn of his statutory jury-trial right and obtain his personal waiver was ordinary procedural error subject to California's miscarriage-of-justice standard, and that the error was harmless because counsel intentionally requested a bench trial and Blackburn did not show he would have chosen a jury. Justice Liu, concurring, defends the majority's rule that a complete denial of an MDO defendant's statutory jury-trial right requires automatic reversal.