When resentencing a defendant under section 1172.75, the trial court may reimpose an upper term using aggravating facts the defendant already stipulated to — no new jury findings required.
The Ninth Circuit issues an amended opinion granting a Rhines stay-and-abey for an Arizona death-row petitioner’s IAC-at-sentencing claim, and remands his Atkins intellectual-disability claim for the district court to address in the first instance.
Case Lee Boyd Malvo v. State of Maryland Court Appellate Court of Maryland Date Decided May 1, 2026 Docket No.
California Supreme Court reaffirms the constitutional right to pretrial release, requiring prosecutors to prove the necessity of detention by clear and convincing evidence and forbidding boilerplate denial-of-bail orders.
On automatic appeal, the California Supreme Court unanimously affirms the convictions and death sentence of Cary Stayner for the 1999 Cedar Lodge murders of Carole Sund, her daughter Juli, and Silvina Pelosso. Justice Evans concurred and dissented in part.
Case In re: Criminal Investigation No. CID 18-2673 in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City Court Supreme Court of Maryland
Case State of Maine v. Jacob Miller Court Maine Supreme Judicial Court Date Decided April 23, 2026 Docket No. Cum-25-84
Second District holds that Penal Code section 3051 youth offender parole hearings are constitutional as applied to forcible sex offenders sentenced under section 667.6’s full consecutive sentence scheme, finding that section 3051 did not improperly amend Proposition 83 (Jessica’s Law).
Second District rejects facial Second Amendment challenges to California’s prohibitions on assault weapons, short-barreled shotguns, silencers, and large-capacity magazines, holding that these regulations survive scrutiny under Heller, Bruen, and the common use test.
The California Supreme Court affirms the convictions and Bertsch’s death sentence in this 1985 kidnap-rape-murder case but reverses Hronis’s death sentence because of post-trial changes in the law governing a defendant’s mental competency to represent himself.