People v. Pinola CA3

DISCUSSION

Defendant appeals, contending the trial court erred in finding Senate Bill 1437 unconstitutionally amended Proposition 115. He requests that we remand the matter for the trial court to consider his petition in the first instance. The Attorney General concedes the issue and agrees the trial court erred in finding Senate Bill 1437 unconstitutional and joins in the request to reverse the trial court’s order and for remand. In People v. Superior Court (Ferraro) (2020) 51 Cal.App.5th 896, 914-917 and People v. Lombardo (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 553, 559-561, this court recently joined other appellate courts in concluding that Senate Bill 1437 is not an invalid amendment of Proposition 115 because the legislation did not add to or take away from any provision in the initiative. Consistent with these prior decisions, we accept the Attorney General’s concession that Senate Bill 1437 is not an invalid amendment of Proposition 115. We will reverse the trial court’s order.

DISPOSITION

The trial court’s order finding Senate Bill 1437 invalid as to first degree felony murder, and denying defendant’s petition for resentencing under section 1170.95, is reversed. The matter is remanded…