People v. Carnes CA2/1

Discussion, part B, post.) During the pendency of this appeal, Carnes was granted parole. We exercise our discretion to reach the merits of Carnes’s appeal regardless of this grant of parole. We also hold that although the trial court sentenced Carnes to an aggregate prison term of 58 years 8 months to life, he is ineligible for resentencing relief under section 1170, subdivision (d). First, the statutory language does not support Carnes’s argument; it expressly affords relief only to juvenile offenders actually sentenced to LWOP. Second, Carnes’s equal protection challenge to section 1170, subdivision (d) is moot because even if arguendo his sentence were the functional equivalent of LWOP when the trial court initially imposed it, the Legislature’s enactment of section 3051, effective January 1, 2014, converted Carnes’s prison sentence to a life term with parole eligibility after 25 years. Put differently, because section 3051 modified Carnes’s prison term such that it is not functionally equivalent to LWOP, the statute eliminated the basis for his equal protection challenge to section 1170, subdivision (d)(1)(A). Accordingly, we affirm the order denying Carnes’s petition for…