The State - News from Nov. 15, 1985

California “would look like a communist-type police state” if the percentage of convictions upheld by state courts were any higher, state Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk said. “Judges in California at all levels are not soft on crime,” he told a meeting of the Santa Clara County Bar Assn. in San Jose. “They are hard on the Constitution. I hope a reflective society would not have it otherwise, that it would not tolerate judges deciding constitutional issues by a body count based on the vagaries of public opinion.” Mosk, 73, has sat on the high court for 21 years. He is one of six justices on the seven-member court scheduled to be on next November’s ballot for voter retention. He has said he may retire instead, but does not plan to announce a decision until next year.