People v. Vo CA3

DISCUSSION

I Section 3051 Does Not Violate Equal Protection Petitioner agrees he is ineligible for a youth offender parole hearing under section 3051. He argues instead that section 3051, which allows LWOP offenders who committed their crimes as juveniles to be considered for youth offender parole hearings but not LWOP offenders who committed their crimes when they were between 18 to 25 years old (referred to as young-adult offenders or young-adult LWOP offenders), violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because the section excludes young-adult offenders like him from such hearings. We disagree. “The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article I, section 7 of the California Constitution guarantee all persons the equal protection of the

2 laws.” (People v. Edwards (2019) 34 Cal.App.5th 183, 195.) “The right to equal protection of the law is violated when ‘the government . . . treat[s] a [similarly situated] group of people unequally without some justification.’ ” (People v. Love (2020) 55 Cal.App.5th 273, 287.) “To succeed on an equal protection claim, [petitioner] must first show that the state has adopted…