Arabian Takes Oath for State High Court : Judiciary: The colorful Los Angeles jurist was an early advocate of rape-law reform. He gives assurances that he will not soon leave the beleaguered panel.

Appellate Justice Armand Arabian, a combative and colorful Los Angeles jurist and an early advocate of rape-law reform, was sworn in Thursday as the 105th member of the California Supreme Court.

Nominated by Gov. George Deukmejian, his longtime friend, Arabian took the oath of office from Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas moments after he was confirmed unanimously by the three-member state Judicial Appointments Commission, meeting in Los Angeles.

The 55-year-old Arabian, the son of Armenian immigrants who lived in a tenement on New York City’s lower East Side, joins four other Deukmejian appointees who have helped form the moderately conservative majority that has led the court since the defeat of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and two others in the November, 1986, election.

Arabian gave strong assurances he would not soon leave a high court that is struggling with a heavy backlog of death-penalty cases--185 by recent count--and that has seen two justices resign recently after less than three years in office. Rumors persist that even more court members are considering resignation, threatening further disruption.

He told the commission--composed of Lucas, Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Senior Presiding Court of Appeal Justice Lester W. Roth--that he had assured Deukmejian he would not accept the appointment had he planned to spend only “a couple” of years on the high court.

Later, he told reporters that if confirmed by the voters next fall, he expects to stay on at least through his remaining eight-year term. “In my present state of mind, I intend to serve as long and as well as I can,” he said.

In his own brief remarks to the commission, Arabian gave repeated assurances that he had made no commitments to the governor on how he might rule on cases and asserted he is looking forward to service on the high court despite its demanding workload.

He likened his appearance before the commission to the moments before parachuting from an airplane--an allusion to his military service as an Army paratrooper. Arabian said afterward that he has continued in recent years to make occasional jumps with an international organization of airborne veterans. “People have asked me why I continue to do that,” he said. “I think it’s good to get out of the ivory tower, get the cobwebs out of your brains, go out with the boys and have a little adventure.”

Arabian’s seven years on the state Court of Appeal in Los Angeles were marked by a broad variety of rulings that reflected his fondness for expansive, stylish judicial writing. In one decision, he quoted both William Shakespeare and Harry S. Truman.

Legal observers say they expect Arabian to fit comfortably with the court’s moderate-to-conservative majority. But the experts do not rule out the possibility that he will emerge on occasion as a somewhat unpredictable “wild card”--similar to the man he succeeded, retiring Justice Marcus M. Kaufman.

In an interview with The Times, Arabian himself cautioned against applying either the label conservative or liberal to his 18-year record as a Municipal, Superior and Appeal Court judge. He cited, for example, a range of cases where criminal defendants had both won and lost.

“On any given day, the case will dictate the label,” he said. “I know there’s a great thirst, especially in the journalistic community, to label somebody--but these labels are relatively meaningless. . . . Depending on the case, call me what you will.”

Arabian declined to state a personal position on the death penalty, but noted that as a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney and, later, a criminal defense lawyer, he has both prosecuted and defended those accused of capital crimes. Twice, as a judge, he sentenced defendants to the gas chamber.

He said he is resigned to accepting a heavy workload that stems from the court’s extensive backlog of pending capital appeals. But he joined other legal authorities who have urged a change in the law to permit such cases to go first to the Court of Appeal--where the voluminous case records and complex issues can be reviewed and clarified--instead of being sent directly to the high court, as they are now.

Arabian’s friendship with Deukmejian dates back to the 1960s when, as lawyers, the two became acquainted while representing opposing sides in a divorce case. Arabian became a member of Deukmejian’s unofficial “kitchen cabinet,” meeting periodically to discuss the future governor’s political plans.

Later, after he was appointed to the bench in 1972 by Gov. Ronald Reagan, Arabian worked with then-legislator Deukmejian on bills that mandated prison for first-time rape offenders and strengthened the penalty for rape by an instrument.

Arabian won wide attention for a pioneering decision in which he refused to give jurors a since-abandoned instruction to view a rape victim’s testimony with added caution. The instruction later was invalidated by the state Supreme Court. To have given the instruction, he said in the interview, “would have plunged a dagger into the heart of the lady of justice.”

In Thursday’s hearing, Arabian’s nomination drew enthusiastic support from Appellate Justice George Danielson of Los Angeles; Encino attorney Ellis J. Horvitz; Los Angeles County Public Defender Wilbur Littlefield, and attorney Janice Reznik, past president of the California Women Lawyers Assn.