Word: martinez
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...question arises because of a jewelry-store holdup in Los Angeles, after which the police arrested Henry Martinez and his alleged accomplice, John Aranda. At their joint trial, a policeman testified that Martinez had confessed, implicating Aranda. The judge followed a common practice: he ruled Martinez's confession admissible, but warned the jury not to consider it as evidence against Aranda. Not surprisingly, however, the jury found both men guilty of first-degree robbery...
Acting under its broad new confession doctrine (People v. Dorado), the California Supreme Court has voided Martinez's confession on the ground that the police failed to warn him of his rights to silence and to counsel as soon as they had other solid evidence against him-his fingerprints at the scene of the crime. In effect, that reversal also destroyed the case against Aranda-and spurred the court to confront the whole problem of how confessions should be handled in joint trials...
Speaking for the California court in the Martinez-Aranda case, Chief Justice Roger Traynor took his cue from Jackson and reversed Aranda's conviction on the ground that a jury cannot "segregate evidence into separate intellectual boxes." In short, said Traynor, if A confesses that he committed criminal acts with B, the jury cannot "effectively ignore the inevitable conclusion that B has committed those same criminal acts with A." From now on, ruled Traynor, California courts must handle codefendant confessions according to new procedures...
...Postponements for "further hearings," says Specter, give magistrates "an opportunity to extort money from defendants prior to disposition at the preliminary hearing." While tending a friend's bar in 1963, Juan Martinez was arrested for letting in a minor. Magistrate Harry J. Ellick reportedly commented: "Big people pay $500 and little people pay $200." To pressure Martinez, says Specter, Ellick granted two postponements, demanded $75 from the actual bar owner, finally sent the man before a grand jury, which refused to indict him. Magistrate Ellick himself was indicted last March for extortion, bribery and blackmail...
...GERTRUDE MARTINEZ Wellington, Colo...