Eugene M. Premo

Eugene Milton Premo (born August 28, 1936) is a justice of the California Courts of Appeal, Sixth District. He graduated from Santa Clara University in 1957. In 1962 graduated with LL.B. Degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. In 1988 he was appointed to a newly created position on the court of Appeal, sixth District by Governor George Deukmejian. He has also served as president of the Municipal Court Judges Association.[3][4]

In 1975, Judge Eugene Premo of the San Jose Supreme Court dismissed a murder charge made under the 1945 California Wife-Abuse Law. The statute stated, "Any husband who willfully inflicts upon his wife corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition, and any person who willfully inflicts upon any child any cruel and inhumane corporal punishment of injury resulting in a traumatic condition, is guilt of a felony, and upon conviction there-of shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 10 years or in the county jail for not more than one year.” Judge Premo noted in a memorandum that dismissing the case was based on the conviction being a felony for the husband, while "a wife, however, inflicting the same injury and trauma can be subjected to no more than misdemeanor prosecution under assault and battery sections." Judge Premo's decision was a demonstration of sexism by taking advantage of male bias within the criminal justice system and denying the value of laws created to correct existing imbalances of the time.