At its Wednesday conference yesterday, besides asking for supplemental briefing in an employment case, the Supreme Court’s actions of note included:

  • The court might have refused two of Governor Brown’s requests for clemency recommendations, even using its deferential standard of review.  At this point, the court’s actions on the two are unclear.  The conference results list states for both, “Clemency not recommended,” but the dockets for each recommendation request don’t show any actions taken yesterday.  The two requests were for Richard Barnfield, to commute sentences of 14 years for discharging a firearm at a moving vehicle, robbery, possession of a sawed-off gun, and vehicle theft; and of 25-years-to-life for assault on an inmate likely to cause great bodily injury; and for John Johnson, to commute a life-without-parole sentence plus 9 years and 4 months for murder, 2 counts of robbery, vehicle theft, possession of a deadly weapon, and a firearm enhancement.
  • However, the court did recommend clemency for:  Jessie Biggs, to commute an LWOP sentence for first degree murder; Jose Esquero, to commute a three-strikes 27-years-to-life sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possession of a controlled substance; and Jesus Hernandez, to commute a 36-years-to-life sentence for carjacking, robbery, and two prison term enhancements.
  • The court granted the Attorney General’s petition for review in People v. Rodriguez.  The Fifth District Court of Appeal’s published opinion in the case reversed the defendant’s convictions, agreeing with his arguments, as paraphrased by the court, that “the trial court erred when it failed to instruct the jury sua sponte on simple assault as a lesser offense necessarily included in assault with a deadly weapon by an inmate” and that “the prosecutor committed the form of prejudicial misconduct known as ‘vouching’ by arguing to the jury that the correctional officer witnesses would not lie because lying would destroy their careers and lead to their prosecution for perjury, even though no evidence of such consequences was presented.”
  • The court depublished the opinion of the Fourth District, Division Two, in Scott v. McDonald.  The opinion mostly upheld a nearly $100,000 surcharge against a trustee of a disabled minor’s spendthrift trust.  Much of the opinion concerns whether the superior court used appropriate standards of review regarding the trustee’s actions.
  • There were dissenting record votes from the denial of review in three criminal cases.  Justice Ming Chin voted to grant review in People v. Banda, where the Second District, Division Seven, in a 2-1 published opinion, interpreted Proposition 64 (the 2016 Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act) to require dismissal of cultivation of marijuana charges.  Justice Goodwin Liu wanted to hear In re C.G. and In re T.H., two habeas corpus petitions that the Sixth District denied without opinion.
  • The court issued a grant-and-hold order in one criminal case and it got rid of 17 cases that had been grant-and-holds.