People v. Courtemarche CA3

DISCUSSION

Section 4852.01, subdivision (a) authorizes persons who have been released from state prison, and who meet other conditions not relevant to this appeal, to file a petition for a certificate of rehabilitation. However, subdivision (d) of section 4852.01 specifies circumstances which exclude persons from the petitioning process. One of the excluding circumstances is when a person has been convicted of a violation of section 288a, subdivision (c), the conviction in this case. However, because defendant asserts an equal protection claim based on section 288.7, we must also look at the exclusion based on “persons serving a mandatory life parole.”

See Assembly Committee on Public Safety, Bill Analysis, Assembly Bill No. 1438 (A.B. 1438), pages 5-9.

2 Section 3000.1 governs mandatory life parole and provided, prior to January 1, 2015: “Notwithstanding any other law, in the case of any inmate sentenced to a life term under subdivision (b) of Section 209, if that offense was committed with the intent to commit a specified sexual offense, Sections 269 and 288.7, subdivision (c) of Section 667.51, Section 667.71 in which one or more of the victims of the offense was a…