Ronald Taylor v. Matthew Cate, Secretary Cdcr

In 1987, two people entered a fast food restaurant, and one of them shot and killed the owner, Lewis Lim. A jury found that petitioner Ronald Taylor was the shooter, and convicted him of felony murder predicated on attempted robbery. The state trial court sentenced Taylor to life without the possibility of parole on the basis of the jury’s finding that he was the shooter. In 1996, Taylor told the State that although he had been at the restaurant on the day of the crime, his cousin, Hugh Hayes Jr., was actually the shooter. The State believed Taylor and sought to have him re-sentenced as an aider and abettor. The state trial court resentenced Taylor as an *844 aider and abettor to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Taylor objected to resentencing, contending that the jury had not found him guilty of aiding and abetting the robbery, and that he was entitled to a new trial. The state courts did not resolve Taylor’s claim for procedural reasons, so he petitioned the federal court for a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that the State may not continue to hold him in prison on the theory that he aided and abetted a robbery, when the jury did not find the facts…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

The State of California concluded that it had sentenced the petitioner in this case,

*849 Ronald Taylor, too harshly. Although the State thought he was guilty of murder, the crime for which he had been convicted, it concluded that he was an aider and abettor and not a principal. The State made this determination because Taylor, after denying his guilt at trial, subsequently came clean about his involvement in the crime and fingered the likely principal in an effort to get a lighter sentence. The State eventually came to the same conclusion. Although it was under no obligation to do so, the State then laudably moved to give him that lighter sentence as an aider and abettor.

On Taylor’s petition for habeas corpus, the majority rules that the State may not resentence Taylor but must instead retry him or let him go. I expect that it may be difficult for the State to retry him successfully more than a quarter century after the crime was committed, for reasons having nothing to do with Taylor’s actual guilt or innocence. Thus, the result of our decision may well be to free Taylor and wipe this crime off his record. By punishing California…

facts that the jury did not find, and indeed that conflicted with what the jury did find, violated his Sixth Amendment rights. The panel wrote that there was no trial error that could be subject to harmless error analysis, and concluded that Taylor is entitled to a new trial.

Judge Clifton concurred in part and dissented in part. He agreed that constitutional error arose when the State resentenced Taylor as an aider and abettor. But he disagreed that the correct remedy is to grant the writ and order a retrial. He would hold that the error in this case is amenable to harmless error review, and would remand for further proceedings to determine whether Taylor suffered prejudice.

** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.

TAYLOR V. CATE

COUNSEL

Kurt David Hermansen (argued), Law Office of Kurt David Hermansen, San Diego, California, for Petitioner-Appellant.

Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General of California, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Kenneth C. Byrne, Supervising Deputy Attorney…