You can’t swing a stick in the Supreme Court without hitting a Proposition 47 case. (See recently here, here, here, here, and here.) At its Wednesday conference, the Supreme Court added yet another one to its docket, People v. Jimenez. In that case, the Second District, Division Six, Court of Appeal, in a published opinion, applied the Supreme Court’s cashing-a-small-stolen-check-is-shoplifting decision in People v. Gonzales and held that an identity-theft felony conviction was properly reduced to a misdemeanor.
Other notable actions included:
- Under its deferential clemency standard of review, the court approved the governor’s request for a recommendation to commute a life-without-parole sentence imposed for two first degree murders and an attempted murder.
- The court depublished the Court of Appeal’s opinion in Fischer v. Fischer. There, the First District, Division Two, affirmed the denial of a husband’s request for a domestic violence protective order against his wife. The initial depublication request was filed by the Family Violence Appellate Project.
- The court denied rehearing in People v. Reed, where a 5-2 court affirmed a death sentence. Although both Justices Goodwin Liu and Leondra Kruger dissented, only Justice Liu voted to grant rehearing. In general, Justice Kruger seems hesitant to use the court’s rehearing power. (See also here.)
- The court issued five grant-and-hold orders in criminal or juvenile cases.
- The court transferred back to the Courts of Appeal 20 grant-and-hold criminal cases.