There are different ways a person can challenge their conviction and seek post-conviction relief. In the past few years, the California legislature has made significant changes to the state’s sentencing laws in an effort to rectify the devastating results caused by the state’s tough on crime policies, which have led to harsh and excessively punitive…
Continue reading ›Until 2019, countless of inmates in California had been serving unjustly long sentences for murder convictions, even though they never killed, attempted to kill, or intended for a person to die. Fortunately, as part of the ongoing criminal justice reform in California, in 2017, the state legislature acknowledged the need for more equitable sentencing of…
Continue reading ›FELONY MURDER RULE RELIEF (SB 1437) On September 30, 2018, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 1437. SB 1437 became known as the Felony Murder Rule effectively changing the rules for how California charges felony murders. Prior to SB 1437, California law allowed a defendant to be convicted of first-degree murder in the…
Continue reading ›Senate Bill 1437 took effect in January of this year, yet many still challenge whether the new state law regarding felony murder is constitutional. The old felony murder doctrine left countless people locked up in prison, some for decades, for murders they didn’t commit. Essentially, anyone who was an accomplice was considered equally responsible in…
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