In re Hansen CA4/1

FACTS

In 2009, a jury convicted petitioner Brae Hansen of first degree murder and

vicarious use of a firearm. The jury also found true the special circumstance that the

murder was committed by lying in wait. The court sentenced Hansen to life without the

possibility of parole. Hansen was 17 at the time she committed the crime.

DISCUSSION

In her petition for writ of habeas corpus, Hansen contends that Penal Code

section 190.5 (undesignated statutory references are to the Penal Code), which governs

sentencing of juveniles found guilty of murder in which certain special circumstances are

found true, violates the Constitution's Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and

unusual punishment. Hansen's petition is premised on a recent Supreme Court decision,

Miller v. Alabama (2012) __ U.S. __, 132 S.Ct. 2455 (Miller), which held that a state

statute imposing a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole for those

under the age of 18 who commit murder violates the Eighth Amendment and that such

sentences may be imposed only after the court considers the "distinctive attributes of

youth" and how those attributes "diminish the penological…