Polk

BACKGROUND

Susan Polk was charged with killing her husband with a knife, convicted of murder by a Contra Costa County Superior Court jury in 2006, and sentenced to sixteen years to life in prison. Polk v. Hughes, No. 12-CV-05986-VC (PR), 2015 WL 1322304, at *1 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 24, 2015), aff’d sub nom. Polk v. Hill, 700 F. App’x 688 (9th Cir. 2017). California subsequently enacted Senate Bill 1437, which “amend[ed] the felony murder rule and the natural and probable consequences doctrine, as it relates to murder, to ensure that murder liability is not imposed on a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life.” People v. Gentile, 10 Cal. 5th 830, 842 (2020) (quoting Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § l, subd. (f))). The law created a remedy for those previously convicted in a way that contradicted it, codified at California Penal Code § 1170.95 and subsequently renumbered as section 1172.61, allowing them to seek resentencing. Section 1170.95 applied at first to those against whom a complaint, information, or indictment had been filed using a theory of…