The Supreme Court’s Wednesday conference was the first one in three weeks, so the court ruled on an unusually large number of petitions.  Not out of the ordinary was that the vast majority of rulings were denials.

Actions of note included:

  • The court agreed to hear People v. Kelly, in which the Second District, Division Six, Court of Appeal dismissed the defendant’s appeal that seeks to have the superior court exercise its discretion under a new law, Senate Bill 1393.  The legislation now authorizes trial courts to strike, in the interests of justice, a prior serious felony conviction that would otherwise require a five-year sentence enhancement.  Feeling itself bound by Supreme Court precedent, the appellate court refused to reach the merits of the appeal because the defendant had not obtained a certificate of probable cause to challenge a negotiated sentence.
  • The court also granted review in a second SB 1393 case, People v. Stamps.  There, the First District, Division Four, in a published opinion, disagreed with Kelly, ante, and held a certificate of probable cause wasn’t necessary.  The appellate court relied on an exception to the certificate-of-probable-cause requirement because “the ordinary rule does not apply when the challenge is based on a retroactive change in the law.”
  • The court denied review but granted a depublication request in Jimenez-Sanchez v. Dark Horse Express, wiping from the books the Fifth District’s opinion that reversed the denial of a class certification motion in a wage and hour case.  The appellate court held that the superior court “used improper criteria or erroneous legal assumptions, which affected its analysis of whether plaintiffs’ claims and one of defendant’s defenses presented predominantly common issues, suitable for determination on a class basis.”
  • The court transferred to the superior court one more capital habeas corpus petition under Proposition 66.
  • There were three criminal case grant-and-holds and three criminal case grant-and-transfers.
  • The court shed seven previous grant-and-holds.