People v. English CA4/1

DISCUSSION

English argues that the trial court misapplied the governing legal standard in denying any section 1172.75 relief beyond striking his prison prior. Before 2020, section 667.5, subdivision (b), “required that trial courts ‘impose a one-year term for each prior separate prison term or county jail term’ that the defendant had served.” (People v. Christianson (2023) 97 Cal.App.5th 300, 309 (Christianson).) Effective January 1, 2020, the

3 Legislature amended section 667.5, subdivision (b) to limit the one-year prison prior enhancement to only prison terms served for convictions of sexually violent offenses. (Ibid.) The Legislature subsequently made this change retroactive through the enactment of section 1172.75. (Id. at pp. 309– 310; § 1172.75, subd. (a).) Section 1172.75 includes “a mechanism for identifying and resentencing individuals currently serving a term in jail or prison that includes a now invalid section 667.5, subdivision (b) sentence enhancement.” (Christianson, supra, 97 Cal.App.5th at p. 310.) After eligible individuals are identified and their information provided to the sentencing court, “the sentencing court ‘shall review the judgment and verify that…