At the Supreme Court’s Wednesday conference, with only six justices participating because of Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar’s retirement at the end of October, actions of note included:
- Another sealed clemency record on track to be partially opened.
- Cannabis ordinance. The court agreed to review the Second District, Division Three, Court of Appeal’s published opinion in People v. Appellate Division, which held an octogenarian landlord could be prosecuted under Los Angeles city ordinances that prohibit renting to “any unlicensed Commercial Cannabis Activity.” The appellate court concluded that state law doesn’t preempt the ordinances and that, even though the landlord said she didn’t know about the cannabis shop on her property, the ordinances “impose strict liability and do not require proof of knowledge or intent.” The superior court had dismissed the charges in the interest of justice, but the appellate division reversed and Division Three agreed with the reversal. This was the second grant of review in the case — after Division Three summarily denied the defendant’s writ petition 13 months ago, the Supreme Court directed the appellate court to decide the case on its merits.
- AG concession rejected. Justice Goodwin Liu recorded a dissenting vote from the denial of review in People v. B.P., where a 2-1 unpublished Second District, Division Six, opinion held a defendant had validly waived his right to have a jury decide whether he should be committed for treatment as a mentally disordered offender. The Attorney General had conceded the superior court had not properly advised the defendant of his jury trial right, but the majority rejected the concession, relying in part on the defendant being “a veteran of [the criminal justice] system.” The dissenter focused on the defendant’s suffering from schizophrenia and said, “To what extent this may affect his capacity to waive jury I leave to others, but it raises a doubt in my mind.” Justice Liu has been sensitive to jury trial waiver issues in the past. (See here, here, and here.)
- Murder conviction reversed. The court denied review and a depublication request in People v. Jimenez. The divided, partially published opinion of the Fourth District, Division Two, reversed a first-degree murder conviction, agreeing with the defendant that “his confession was involuntary because the police induced it by threatening to charge his sons with the murder” even though the police told the defendant the sons were innocent of murder. The dissent claimed that the issue was forfeited by failing to object to admission of the confession into evidence and that the record in any event established “the confession was voluntary under constitutional standards.” It said, “Officer interrogation tactics are sometimes deceptive or manipulative, but such tactics have often been upheld as not unconstitutionally coercive.”
- Criminal case grant-and-holds. There were two criminal case grant-and-holds, both holding for a decision in People v. Strong (see here).
- Grant and transfers. The court granted review and transferred two cases back to the Courts of Appeal, one for reconsideration in light of January’s opinion in People v. Tirado (2022) 12 Cal.5th 688, and the other for reconsideration in light of Senate Bill 567, Assembly Bill 518, and Senate Bill 317.