In People v. Reyes, the Supreme Court today holds a superior court erred in its denial of a petition for resentencing under 2018 legislation — Senate Bill 1437 — that limited criminal liability for felony murder and eliminated it for murder under the natural-and-probable-consequences doctrine. Application of that statutory change continues to occupy a considerable amount of the court’s resources. The court granted review in another SB 1437 case yesterday. (See here regarding People v. Patton.)
The defendant in today’s case had been sentenced to a 40-years-to-life term for second degree murder involving a killing committed by a fellow gang member when the defendant was 15 years old.
The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Goodwin Liu doesn’t require that the resentencing petition be granted, only that the superior court reevaluate the petition under a proper legal standard. The opinion finds the trial court made two mistakes: “its conclusion that Reyes’s conviction was sustainable on a direct perpetrator theory was not supported by substantial evidence. And to the extent the trial court purported to uphold Reyes’s murder conviction on a direct aiding and abetting theory, the court misapprehended what is required as a matter of law to prove aiding and abetting implied malice murder.”
Although ruling for the defendant, the court rejects an argument made by amicus curiae State Public Defender that challenges the validity of a direct aiding and abetting theory of second degree murder.
The court reverses the Fourth District, Division Three, Court of Appeal’s unpublished opinion.