People v. Boyd CA2/4

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

In 1997, a jury convicted defendant and appellant Harry Jackson Boyd Jr. of two special circumstance murders (Pen. Code, §§ 187, subd. (a), 190.2, subds. (a)(3) & (a)(17)),1 committed less than a month before defendant’s 26th birthday. The trial court sentenced defendant to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole (LWOP). In 2022, defendant filed a motion requesting a hearing to make a record of mitigating evidence for a future youth offender parole hearing. (See §§ 1203.01, 3051.)2 The court denied the motion, finding the relevant statute excluded individuals, such as defendant, serving LWOP sentences for murders they committed between the ages of 18 and 26.3 The court also rejected defendant’s equal protection claim based on the separate treatment of juvenile and non-juvenile, youthful offenders sentenced to LWOP. Defendant timely appealed. On appeal, defendant contends the trial court erred in denying his motion to make a youth offender parole hearing record. He argues section 3051 as amended violates his constitutional rights to equal protection and freedom from cruel or unusual punishment. We affirm.

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