People v. Lynch

Opinion of the Court by Corrigan, J.

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause, “provides that those ‘accused’ of a ‘crime’ have the right to a trial ‘by an impartial jury.’ This right, in conjunction with the Due Process Clause, requires that each element of a crime be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Alleyne v. United States (2013) 570 U.S. 99, 104 (Alleyne), quoting U.S. Const., 6th Amend.; accord, Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) 530 U.S. 466, 476 (Apprendi).) In the context of California’s determinate sentencing scheme, Cunningham v. California (2007) 549 U.S. 270 (Cunningham) held that, “under the Sixth Amendment, any fact that exposes a defendant to a greater potential sentence must be found by a jury, not a judge, and established beyond a reasonable doubt, not merely by a preponderance of the evidence.” (Id. at p. 281.) “Inhering in that guarantee is an assurance that a guilty verdict will issue only from a unanimous jury.” (Erlinger v. United States (2024) 602 U.S. ___, ___ [144 S.Ct. 1840, 1849] (Erlinger); accord, Ramos v. Louisiana (2020) 590 U.S. 83, 90, 92–93…