The First District reverses the denial of compassionate release for a prisoner whose severe medical deterioration — complete loss of lower extremity function, fused spine, and incontinence — made any realistic possibility of future harm impossible.
First District affirms bail bond forfeiture, holding that a trial court’s on-the-record acknowledgment of an off-the-record explanation for a defendant’s nonappearance suffices to retain jurisdiction over the bond under Penal Code section 1305.1.
The First District Court of Appeal affirmed a middle-term sentence for witness dissuasion, holding that evidence of childhood trauma alone does not trigger the lower-term presumption under Penal Code section 1170(b)(6) without sufficient evidence linking that trauma to the specific offense.
First District partially reverses animal rights activist’s trespass convictions arising from open-rescue activities at Sonoma County poultry farms, holding the trial court erred by limiting evidence of the defendant’s good-faith mistake of law about the legality of his conduct under the
First District holds that a probation condition allowing the probation department to incarcerate a defendant for up to 120 days without a court hearing improperly delegates judicial authority and that denying custody credit for residential treatment requires a knowing waiver under Penal Code section
First District holds that trial counsel’s failure to request a free court reporter for an antipsychotic medication renewal hearing constituted ineffective assistance of counsel and reverses the order authorizing involuntary medication, remanding for a new hearing.
First District holds that placement in a family member’s home with community-based programming and supervision can qualify as a “less restrictive program” under Welfare and Institutions Code section 875(f), even though the appeal was dismissed as moot after the youth was placed wit
First District holds that the term ‘receives’ in Penal Code section 32310(a) requires more than mere possession of a large-capacity magazine, and reverses a felony conviction supported only by evidence that the defendant possessed the magazine in his car.
First District holds, with one justice dissenting, that a defendant forfeited his Penal Code section 1170(b)(6) low term presumption claim by failing to raise it at sentencing despite submitting evidence of childhood trauma.
First District holds that a juvenile court may consider a victim impact statement at a six-month baseline review hearing if it limits its consideration to material relevant to the juvenile’s rehabilitation.