People v. Stubbs CA2/1

BACKGROUND

I. Statutory and case law background

In 1976, the Legislature enacted section 667.5, subdivision (b), which provides that for any person convicted of a felony, “in addition and consecutive to any other sentence therefor, the court shall impose a one-year term for each prior separate prison term or county jail term . . . for any felony.”

All further statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise indicated.

2 In 2014, California voters enacted Proposition 47, which reclassified certain drug and theft-related felony offenses as misdemeanors.2 For persons already convicted of one of these offenses, Proposition 47 provided relief to those persons by creating two new procedures pursuant to a new section 1170.18 added to the Penal Code. First, if the person is currently serving the felony sentence, then he or she may petition for a “recall” of that felony sentence and request resentencing to a misdemeanor unless the court finds that resentencing would pose an unreasonable risk that the person will commit a new violent felony. (§ 1170.18, subds. (a)-(c).) Second, if the person has completed the sentence for the felony conviction, he or she may file an…