In Re Chaudhary

Penal Code section 3000.1 provides that a person convicted of a second degree murder that occurred after January 1, 1983, is subject to lifetime parole and becomes eligible for discharge from parole “when [such a] person . . . has been released on parole from the state prison, and has been on parole continuously for . . . five years.” (Stats. 1982, ch. 1406, § 4, p. 5363.)

Respondent Kailash Chaudhary was convicted of the 1986 second degree murder of his ex-wife and incarcerated in a state prison. He was released on lifetime parole in March 2005. Prior to his release on parole, Chaudhary spent an additional three years 10 months in prison beyond the length of the term set by the former Board of Prison Terms (the Board) when it granted him parole. Two years six months of this prison time occurred after the effective date of the Board’s parole grant, because the Governor reversed that grant. The Governor’s reversal was subsequently overturned by this court, resulting in Chaudhary’s release.

In 2007, Chaudhary filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the superior court contending that the time he spent in prison after the effective date of the Board’s parole grant…