Fourth District affirms convictions but remands for resentencing in a vehicle-theft case, holding the prosecutor’s and defense counsel’s use of a ‘dog drinking a slushy’ analogy to explain circumstantial evidence did not violate the Racial Justice Act.
Second District reverses convictions of former UCLA gynecologic oncologist James Heaps, holding the trial court’s ex parte communications with the jury through a judicial assistant — without notifying counsel — deprived defendant of counsel at a critical stage and the prosecution failed to pro
The California Supreme Court holds that a small amount of loose marijuana scattered on a car floor is not an open container under state law and does not give police probable cause to search the vehicle.
Fifth District holds that grand jury transcripts and police reports are not within section 1172.6(d)(3)’s hearsay exception and were inadmissible at the petitioner’s section 1172.6 evidentiary hearing, vacating the denial and remanding for a new hearing.
Fourth District grants writ relief, holding that an Orange County trial court applied the wrong legal standard and relied on findings unsupported by substantial evidence when denying mental-health pretrial diversion to a defendant diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Second District affirms a 25-years-to-life sentence after a section 1172.75 resentencing, holding that Senate Bill 81’s amendments to Penal Code section 1385(c) do not apply to dismissal of prior strike convictions under the Three Strikes Law.
Fourth District grants writ relief, holding that Government Code section 27706(g) gives a public defender discretion to decline appointment to represent a habeas petitioner — including a Racial Justice Act claimant — without showing unavailability.
After IFP screening of an amended complaint by a state prisoner experiencing a mental-health crisis, the court allowed his Eighth Amendment excessive-force claim to proceed against two correctional officers who allegedly held him against a hot metal plate causing severe burns, but dismissed his deli
Second District holds an order denying a Penal Code section 1172.1 recall-and-resentencing petition is appealable, and reverses where the superior court applied an incorrect legal standard in deciding whether to resentence the petitioner.
Second District affirms denial of a section 1172.6 murder-resentencing petition based in part on preliminary-hearing hearsay, but remands to give the petitioner 30 days to file an amended petition.
Second District denies Microsoft’s writ petition challenging a court-issued nondisclosure order that barred Microsoft from notifying its enterprise customer, USC, that the LAPD had served a search warrant on a USC graduate student’s email account.
First District affirms convictions for possessing an assault weapon and a large-capacity magazine, holding the inventory search of the defendant’s vehicle was lawful and that California’s assault-weapon and magazine bans survive Bruen.
First District denies habeas relief, holding that CDCR may constitutionally permit only educational merit credits — and not other prison conduct credits — to advance an inmate’s youth-parole eligibility date under Penal Code section 3051.
Second District holds an inmate identified by CDCR as eligible for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.75 does not lose that eligibility by being released on parole before the resentencing hearing occurs.
Judge Martínez-Olguín dismisses with prejudice the freestanding actual innocence claim in Maria Moore’s federal habeas petition challenging her California first-degree murder conviction with special circumstances, holding that the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet recognized a free-standing innocence c
Fifth District holds Penal Code section 4600’s specific statute on damaging jail or prison property displaces the general felony vandalism statute, requiring reversal of an inmate’s vandalism conviction and remand for resentencing.
After the California Supreme Court denied a state habeas petition while the federal stay-and-abey motion was pending, the magistrate judge denied the stay request as moot, finding that the petitioner had now fully exhausted his federal claims because they were substantially equivalent to claims pres
Central District of California denies a federal prisoner’s petition to be transported approximately 1,500 miles to testify in person at a private Texas civil trial, finding the cost and security burdens outweigh the benefits.
First District affirms a one-year extension of a mentally disordered offender’s commitment at Coalinga State Hospital, holding the patient forfeited his due-process and equal-protection challenges to the lack of an actuarial risk-assessment tool, and that any instructional error was harmless.
Eastern District of California recommends denying a habeas corpus petition by a state prisoner serving 25 years to life, holding that the absence of clearly established Supreme Court law requiring a jury instruction on attempted criminal threats in a non-capital case forecloses federal habeas relief
The court dismissed a federal habeas petition challenging a California Vehicle Code infraction for lack of jurisdiction, ruling that a 30-day driver’s license suspension is a collateral consequence of conviction that does not satisfy 28 U.S.C. § 2254’s requirement that the petitioner be
After holding an evidentiary hearing, the court denied a federal prisoner’s motion to vacate his sentence for ineffective assistance of counsel, ruling that even though his lawyer miscalculated the sentencing guidelines before trial, the petitioner could not show prejudice because he had alrea
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett accepted a magistrate’s recommendation denying a § 2254 habeas petition, denying additional discovery under Bracy v. Gramley because the petitioner already possessed the only evidence he sought, and denying an evidentiary hearing because the alleged facts would not
Magistrate Judge Daniel S. Roberts ordered a pro se prisoner plaintiff to show cause why his § 1983 suit over a Kern Valley State Prison incident should not be transferred to the Eastern District of California, where the prison and all defendants are located.