People v. Montgomery

INTRODUCTION

Penal Code section 1170.18 allows redesignation of certain enumerated felony drug crimes as misdemeanors. The section includes a proviso that its amelioration is not available to those who have suffered a “prior conviction” for, inter alia, violent felonies. The question presented by this case is, “Prior to what?” Adrian Antwon Montgomery appeals from a postjudgment order denying his application to have a felony conviction for cocaine possession redesignated under 1 Penal Code section 1170.18, subdivision (f), the portion of Proposition 47 that permits a person who has completed a sentence for a felony conviction to have it changed to a misdemeanor. Montgomery pleaded guilty to the drug charge in 1989; at the same time, he was convicted on a separate charge (in another case) of attempted murder. The trial court denied his application for redesignation of his cocaine conviction under Proposition 47 because the attempted murder conviction was a “prior conviction,” rendering Montgomery ineligible for redesigation. For his part, Montgomery argued that his attempted murder conviction was a contemporaneous conviction, not a prior one, and therefore was not a disqualifying…