The People v. Sanchez CA6

BACKGROUND

This court summarized some of the procedural background of Sanchez’s case in Langhorne v. Superior Court (2009) 179 Cal.App.4th 225, as follows: “Sanchez was convicted of one count of lewd act on a child in both 1979 and 1982. He was initially committed as a sexually violent predator in 2000. Thereafter, Sanchez was recommitted for additional two-year terms, with the most recent two-year commitment term extending to January 19, 2008. [Citation.] [¶] On June 8, 2007, before the expiration of the most recent two-year commitment period, the People filed a ‘motion to retroactively apply an indeterminate term to respondent’ under the 2006 amendments to the SVPA.[2] The trial court granted the motion on July 19, 2007, and ordered that Sanchez be committed to the custody of the State Department of Mental Health[3] for an indeterminate term. Sanchez appealed, and this court reversed the order imposing an indeterminate term of commitment in an opinion filed on July 10, 2008. [Citation.]” (Id. at pp. 230-231; see People v. Sanchez (July 10, 2008, H031856) [nonpub. opn.].) On June 4, 2008, while Sanchez’s appeal in case No. H031856 was pending, the People filed a petition to…