The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Bruce Lee Blackburn, Defendant and Appellant — Liu, J., Concurring

Summary

Justice Liu's concurrence supports the court's conclusion that a complete denial of the statutory jury-trial right in an MDO or NGI commitment-extension proceeding requires automatic reversal. It explains that the California Constitution's harmless-error provision generally requires prejudice but also recognizes that some procedural errors independently constitute a miscarriage of justice, including the complete denial of a jury trial. The Chief Justice, dissenting, would have treated the advisement and personal-waiver errors as ordinary statutory error, found them harmless, and affirmed.