In re Murray

BACKGROUND

In 2008, petitioner was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP) for a first degree special circumstance murder he committed when he was 22 years old.1 In 2010, we affirmed his judgment of conviction. (People v. Murray, supra, A121746.) On March 16, 2020, petitioner filed a motion for a Franklin hearing,2 contending he was eligible for a youth offender parole hearing under Penal Code section 3051.3 The trial court denied his motion because under the terms of section 3051, subdivision (h), “people sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were at least 18 years of age but no more than ‘25 years of age or younger’ are not eligible for youth offender parole hearings.” Petitioner appealed, arguing he was not in fact sentenced to LWOP. Because the record confirmed he did receive an LWOP sentence, we affirmed the trial court’s order.4 (People v. Murray (Mar. 15, 2021, A160981) [nonpub. opn.].)

1 In our opinion on petitioner’s appeal from his judgment of conviction, we provided this summary of his offenses and sentence: “After pleading no contest to two counts of second degree robbery and admitting that he had…