People v. Mason

INTRODUCTION

Glenn Mason was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole (LWOP) for a special circumstance murder he committed in 1998, when he was 20 years old. The trial court doubled his LWOP sentence under the Three Strikes Law. Two decades later, the court denied Mason’s request for a hearing under People v. Franklin (2016) 63 Cal.4th 261 (Franklin hearing). Franklin offers inmates eligible for youth offender parole an opportunity to make a record of youth-related mitigating evidence relevant to a future parole hearing. The court properly denied a Franklin hearing. Mason was over 18 when he committed a murder warranting an LWOP sentence: He is statutorily ineligible for youth offender parole. (Pen. Code, § 3051, subd. (h).)1 Section 3051 does not violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection by deeming special circumstance murderers more culpable than other offenders, or by differentiating between adult and juvenile offenders sentenced to LWOP. Further, section 3051 does not violate the proscription on cruel or unusual punishment by excluding inmates who are over age 18 from youth offender parole if they commit heinous crimes warranting LWOP. (Cal.…