People v. Vega CA4/3

FACTS

Vega was convicted of multiple felonies in 2009 and sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. The trial court sustained two prison priors under former section 667.5, subdivision (b), but struck the punishment for those enhancements. Yet the abstract of judgment does not include the enhancements at all. Years later, the Legislature retroactively limited the application of prison priors. (People v. Rhodius (2025) 17 Cal.5th 1050, 1053–1054.) And it enacted section 1172.75, to enable those serving time for now-invalid prison priors to be resentenced following a proceeding initiated by California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). (People v. Rhodius, at pp. 1054–1055.) Vega then filed a petition for recall and resentencing, invoking section 1172.75. The trial court denied the petition after concluding he was ineligible for relief.

DISCUSSION

Section 1172.75 requires the CDCR itself to initiate resentencing proceedings for eligible state-prison inmates. (§ 1172.75, subd. (b).) Defendants cannot initiate these proceedings themselves by petition or motion. (E.g., People v. Escobedo (2023) 95 Cal.App.5th 440, 448; People v.

1 All statutory references are…