Walker

Opinion of the Court by Groban, J.

Penal Code1 section 1385, subdivision (c)(2), as added by Senate Bill No. 81 (Stats. 2021, ch. 721, § 1), provides that a sentencing court “[i]n exercising its discretion” to dismiss a sentencing enhancement “shall consider and afford great weight to evidence offered by the defendant to prove” certain enumerated mitigating circumstances, and “[p]roof of the presence of one or more of these circumstances weighs greatly in favor of dismissing the enhancement, unless the court finds that dismissal of the enhancement would endanger public safety.” The Second District Court of Appeal below “conclude[d] that section 1385’s mandate to ‘afford great weight’ to mitigating circumstances erects a rebuttable presumption that obligates a court to dismiss the enhancement unless the court finds that dismissal of that enhancement . . . would endanger public safety.” (People v. Walker (2022) 86 Cal.App.5th 386, 391, italics added (Walker).) The Sixth District subsequently disagreed, concluding instead that section 1385, subdivision (c)(2) does not preclude a trial court from relying on countervailing aggravating factors, apart from a danger to public…