The Ninth Circuit held that Oregon felony assault committed in front of a household child categorically qualifies as a removable child-abuse offense.
The Ninth Circuit held that GPS history and on-scene facts gave officers probable cause to search a supervisee’s trailer and pickup under his warrantless-search condition.
False-evidence murder claim requires an evidentiary hearing.
Murder resentencing hearing must apply current law and youthfulness evidence.
Drugs carried in a car supported mandatory license revocation.
The Ninth Circuit ordered a new trial because the district court delayed and inadequately investigated an alternate juror who had expressly prejudged the defense.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal holds that courts may rely on all content in a preliminary hearing transcript—including officer-relayed hearsay under Proposition 115—when screening Penal Code § 1172.6 resentencing petitions at the prima facie stage.
A divided Ninth Circuit holds that police executing a computer search warrant must stop searching when evidence they discover negates the probable cause underlying the warrant—and that the good-faith exception does not save evidence found after probable cause dissolves.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal held that California’s criminal discovery statute (Penal Code § 1054.3(b)(1)) does not authorize a trial court to compel a defendant seeking pretrial mental health diversion to undergo a prosecution mental examination, because the diversion hearing is not a
The Ninth Circuit denied panel rehearing and rehearing en banc in a Second Amendment challenge to California’s switchblade knife regulations, leaving intact a panel ruling that California’s ban on the concealed carry of switchblade knives survives a facial constitutional challenge under
California’s Second District Court of Appeal affirmed that placing child-luring offenders in the lifetime sex offender registration tier does not violate equal protection, because the Legislature could rationally find that the predatory, premeditated nature of luring crimes signals a higher ri
The Second District Court of Appeal upholds California’s ban on carrying concealed dirks and daggers as facially constitutional under the Supreme Court’s Bruen text-and-history test, pointing to a robust historical tradition of concealed-weapons prohibitions.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal, on remand from the California Supreme Court, holds that a trial court ordering pretrial detention must make an express finding by clear and convincing evidence that no less restrictive condition than incarceration will adequately protect public safety — “balancin
The Third District reversed a civil asset forfeiture judgment as to one claimant because the jury’s special verdict was internally inconsistent: it found he had an ownership interest in the seized cash and that some of it was innocent, yet awarded him nothing.
The Fifth District held that driving under the influence causing injury is not a lesser included offense of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, because the manslaughter statute can be committed in ways that do not require violating the DUI-with-injury statute.
The Third District held that a juvenile offender’s 50-year determinate sentence is not the functional equivalent of life without parole — and therefore does not qualify for resentencing under Penal Code section 1170(d)(1) — because section 3051 gave him a meaningful parole opportunity during h
The First District publishes this opinion specifically to flag a recurring error: at a section 1172.6 evidentiary hearing, the trial court is an independent fact-finder who must decide whether the petitioner IS guilty beyond a reasonable doubt under current law — not whether a jury ‘could̵
The California Supreme Court holds that a prior prison term enhancement (Pen. Code § 667.5(b)) is ‘imposed’ and thus invalidated under § 1172.75 even when the sentencing court struck the punishment for the enhancement, entitling the defendant to a full resentencing hearing.
The Second District Court of Appeal grants habeas corpus and vacates a second-degree murder conviction after finding the prosecution allowed false eyewitness testimony to stand uncorrected — and defense counsel failed to cross-examine the witnesses with their own prior contradictory police statement
The Ninth Circuit affirms money laundering convictions and most sentencing enhancements in a $2.5 million Target gift-card laundering scheme, but vacates and remands because the district court improperly applied the sophisticated-laundering enhancement under USSG § 2S1.1(b)(3) without first applying
The Ninth Circuit vacated a sophisticated-laundering sentencing enhancement because the district court applied the enhancement without first working through the required preceding step in U.S.S.G. § 2S1.1(b)(2), remanding for limited resentencing of three defendants convicted in a large-scale gift-c
The Fourth District reversed a DUI conviction, holding that a warrantless blood draw from a sedated hospital patient was unconstitutional where the arresting officer faced no competing investigative demands and never considered seeking a warrant.
The First District affirms dismissal of three state charges against David DePape — including attempted murder — under California’s statutory double jeopardy protection, holding that mental-state elements cannot save a state charge when the required physical act was already proved in a prior fe
The First District holds that a trial court’s mathematical error in calculating presentence custody credits is a clerical error the court can correct at any time — but that correction does not render the judgment nonfinal or entitle the defendant to full resentencing under ameliorative legisla