People v. Walton CA5

INTRODUCTION

Appellant Richard James Walton was sentenced to 38 years to life for first degree murder and attempted murder offenses committed in 1997. In 2023, he petitioned for resentencing relief under Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (d) (section 1170(d))1 and pursuant to People v. Heard (2022) 83 Cal.App.5th 608 (Heard). Section 1170(d)(1)(A) affords an opportunity for recall and resentencing only to those juveniles who were sentenced to an explicit term of life without parole (LWOP). Heard held that section 1170(d) violates equal protection principles to the extent it excludes from relief those juveniles sentenced to the functional equivalent of LWOP. In considering appellant’s section 1170(d) petition under Heard’s equal protection analysis, the trial court concluded appellant’s sentence was not the functional equivalent of LWOP, and denied relief under section 1170(d)(1)(A). On appeal, appellant’s equal protection argument extends Heard and operates on the premise that the functional equivalence of LWOP should be guided by the formulation of functional equivalency articulated by the California Supreme Court in People v. Contreras (2018) 4 Cal.5th 349 (Contreras) in the…