The day-early, Thanksgiving week conference didn’t produce many highlights. Here are some, mostly involving Senate Bill 1437, legislation that limited criminal liability for felony murder and eliminated it for murder under the natural-and-probable-consequences doctrine:
Pardon recommendation. The court granted Governor Gavin Newsom’s July request for a constitutionally required recommendation that allows him to pardon David Anguiano for 2007 convictions of possessing a dangerous weapon and transporting a controlled substance. Newsom has a nearly perfect clemency record: he withdrew one request before a ruling, but the court — applying a deferential standard (see here and here) — has approved all 68 of his other requests (not counting two that are pending). That’s better than former Governor Jerry Brown, who had the court without explanation block 10 intended clemency grants. The denial of a request implies that a clemency grant would be an abuse of power.
Murder resentencing dissents. Justices Goodwin Liu and Kelli Evans recorded dissenting votes from the denial of review in People v. Chavarria. (The conference results list reports they dissented, but the case’s online docket does not.) The Fourth District, Division Two, Court of Appeal’s unpublished opinion affirmed the denial of the defendant’s resentencing petition under SB 1437. The opinion states, “The trial court issued an order to show cause and, after the evidentiary hearing, denied the petition, concluding that defendant was a major participant in the kidnapping and acted with reckless indifference to human life.”
Habeas grant and transfer. The court granted review in In re Lee and sent the case back to the Second District, Division Four, with directions to issue an order to show cause. Division Four had summarily denied the habeas corpus petition stating, “The petition is untimely and petitioner has failed to establish justification for the substantial delay. (In re Robbins (1998) 18 Cal.4th 770, 780, 789.) In addition, petitioner fails to demonstrate a prima facie case warranting habeas relief.” The Supreme Court and Court of Appeal dockets don’t indicate what is in issue, but Division Four had four years ago affirmed, in an unpublished opinion, a superior court order summarily denying the defendant’s resentencing petition under SB1437.
Criminal case grant-and-holds. There were just two criminal case grant-and-holds: one more waiting for a decision in People v. Patton (see here), which will be argued next week; and one more on hold for People v. Morris (see here). Patton and Morris are both SB 1437 cases.