Criminal,
California Supreme Court
Aug. 10, 2022
Some felony murder cases can be resentenced, justices rule
“Because prison terms for homicide are often long, there could be a significant volume of cases which would qualify for relief unless barred by procedural obstacles. I anticipate that there will be a significant number of efforts to base claims on the expansion of potential remedy,” said Franklin E. Zimring of UC Berkeley School of Law.
People convicted of felony murder with special circumstances can seek resentencing even if they were convicted and sentenced before 2018, when the Legislature limited the scope of the felony murder rule, a unanimous California Supreme Court ruled this week.
Legal experts differed over how many cases this might impact.
“The significance of the opinion is in how the courts are required to treat petitions once they ...
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