Nicholas Lawrence Todd v. California

When an automobile accident causes the death of a person, California Vehicle Code section 20001 mandates that the driver immediately stop, contact police and admit to driving a vehicle involved in the accident. Petitioner called 911 within minutes of an accident, allowing homicide detectives to build a felony case against him with very little evidence independent of Petitioner’s own statements. The seminal case addressing whether hit and run statutes implicate self-incrimination protections, California v. Byers, 402 U.S. 424, 91 S. Ct. 1535, 29 L. Ed. 2d 9 (1971) (Byers), rejected clear guidance from the California Supreme Court, only to render a murky split decision: a four vote plurality opinion plus a fifth vote concurring in the result only. The Byers decision failed to provide needed guidance and workable rules concerning the Constitutional bounds of these ubiquitous self reporting statutes. Opinions from across the United States reflect this unsettled state of the law. Accordingly, this case presents an unresolved question: Whether the constitutional privilege against compulsory self-incrimination is infringed by California’s so-called ‘hit and run with death’ statute which requires each driver in a fatal accident to stop at the scene, to provide identification information to the police and to admit driving a vehicle involved in the accident.