A district court had to explain why it rejected specific new mitigation evidence when denying an eligible prisoner’s sentence-reduction motion.
Probation terms allowing warrantless property searches did not clearly authorize officers to conduct a suspicionless search of a probationer’s phone photographs.
The Ninth Circuit remanded asylum and cancellation issues because immigration adjudicators relied on non-elements of the conviction and failed to address material evidence of responsibility.
A court conducting prison-prior resentencing may reimpose an upper term that was part of the original sentence without a new jury finding.
The Ninth Circuit required item-by-item judicial review of graphic evidence under Rule 403 but found the failure harmless in Doyle’s case.
The Ninth Circuit denied habeas relief because California’s harmless-error rulings on confrontation and attempted-murder instructions were reasonable under AEDPA.
The agency permissibly treated a California DUI involving severe intoxication and an accessible loaded firearm as a particularly serious crime.
The California Supreme Court held that Penal Code section 1381’s 90-day clock cannot be invoked until the sentenced defendant is actually delivered into state-prison custody.
The Ninth Circuit held that a 270-day delay in obtaining a warrant to test lawfully seized suspected cocaine was reasonable under the totality of the circumstances.
The Ninth Circuit upheld the statutory good-moral-character bar because the petitioner served more than 180 days in custody as a result of a DUI conviction.
A murder resentencing petition could not be denied at the prima facie stage because the record did not eliminate reliance on a now-invalid theory as a matter of law.
A firearm enhancement tied to a vacated attempted-murder conviction could not be imposed on the target offense redesignated at section 1172.6 resentencing.
The Court of Appeal required stays for overlapping drug and firearm possession terms but upheld the upper term as harmless error.
The Ninth Circuit upheld Mark Ridley-Thomas’s bribery and honest-services fraud convictions based on a $100,000 funneling arrangement.
The Ninth Circuit upheld Mark Ridley-Thomas’s bribery and honest-services convictions based on an indirect $100,000 benefit for his son.
California’s high court clarified how judges must evaluate demeanor-based explanations for peremptory juror strikes under section 231.7.
Trial courts may impose reasonable, rehabilitation-focused conditions when granting pretrial mental-health diversion.
A trial court must impose a single restitution fine for one criminal case rather than separate fines for individual counts.
Any failure to define the traffic violations supporting felony evasion was harmless where the undisputed driving conduct clearly violated those laws.
Prosecutors may withhold the third acceptance-of-responsibility point after a stipulated trial, and federal judges must exercise discretion when classifying uncharged California wobbler conduct.
Race-related gang testimony tied to the evidence did not itself violate the Racial Justice Act, though counsel must timely preserve an RJA claim.
The Ninth Circuit held that Penal Code section 273.5 does not categorically require the mental state needed for a federal crime-of-violence enhancement.
The Court of Appeal upheld a firearm search because sealed review supported the warrant and the evidence derived independently from any disputed pre-search detention.
The Ninth Circuit held that the federal interstate-threat statute requires both an objectively threatening communication and a culpable subjective mental state.