People v. Nguyen CA4/3

DISCUSSION

SB 1437 was enacted to ensure murder culpability is commensurate with the defendant’s own actions and mental state. (People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 971 (Lewis).) To that end, the law restricted the scope of the felony murder rule and eliminated the natural and probable consequences theory for the crime of murder. (Id. at p. 959.) These changes were designed to “‘ensure that murder liability is not imposed on a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life.’ [Citation.]” (Ibid.) Section 1170.95 is the procedural mechanism that allows convicted murderers to take advantage of these changes. To obtain resentencing relief under that section, the defendant must have been convicted of murder under the felony murder rule or the natural and probable consequences doctrine. (Lewis, supra, 11 Cal.5th at p. 959.) And, the circumstances of his murder must have been such that he could not be convicted of murder now, due to the changes wrought by SB 1437. (Id. at p. 960.) If the record of conviction negates either one of those requirements, the…