People v. Abramyan CA3

BACKGROUND

I Legal Background Effective January 1, 2019, Senate Bill No. 1437 (2017-2018 Reg. Sess.) (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015) (Senate Bill No. 1437) “altered the substantive law of murder in two areas.” (People v. Curiel (2023) 15 Cal.5th 433, 448 (Curiel).) First, it narrowed the application of the felony-murder rule. (Ibid.) Second, it “imposed a new requirement that, except in cases of felony murder, ‘a principal in a crime shall act with malice aforethought’ to be convicted of murder.” (Id. at p. 449.) As part of the law’s “ameliorative changes, malice, a key element the People must prove in a murder prosecution, may no longer be imputed to a defendant solely because the defendant participated in another crime. [Citations.] This means, for instance, that a defendant is no longer guilty of murder as an aider and abettor solely because the ‘natural and probable consequences’ of that other crime included a confederate’s commission of murder.” (People v. Patton (2025) 17 Cal.5th 549, 558.) Senate Bill No. 1437 also added a procedure, now codified in section 1172.6, “ ‘for those convicted of felony murder or murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine to seek…