People v. Johnson CA2/4

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND1

In 1999, a jury convicted defendant of numerous crimes, including one count of first degree murder, and found true special circumstance allegations that the murder was committed during the commission of a burglary. Defendant was 23 years old at the time of the murder. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP), plus 19 years. In April 2023, defendant filed a motion under Penal Code2 section 1203.1 for a proceeding under People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261, seeking to make a record of mitigating evidence for a future youth offender parole hearing under section 3051. The trial court denied the motion, finding section 3051 excluded individuals, such as defendant, serving LWOP sentences for offenses committed after reaching 18 years of age.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. The court did not address defendant’s contention that section 3051, by rendering him ineligible for a youth offender parole hearing, made his sentence cruel or unusual punishment.

We grant defendant’s request to take judicial…