People v. Superior Court

I. Introduction

The People have petitioned for a writ of mandate directing respondent court to vacate its order releasing real party in interest, Jeffrey W. Roam (Roam), on supervised own recognizance (supervised OR) to attend a drug rehabilitation program at the Delancey Street Foundation (Delancey Street) in Los Angeles. Because Roam pleaded guilty to a serious felony, and also to four prior convictions which qualify as strikes under the “Three Strikes” law, 1 the People contend that the court acted in excess of its jurisdiction in deferring sentencing and releasing Roam postconviction to attend a rehabilitation program.

We agree with the People, and therefore exercise our discretion to proceed with writ review of an issue of first impression: whether the trial court is authorized to release a convicted Three Strikes defendant on supervised OR for the purpose of attending a rehabilitation program prior to sentencing. As we shall explain further, respondent court had no such authority, and acted in excess of its jurisdiction under the Three Strikes law when it released Roam *1224 post conviction on terms that amounted to informal probation. We therefore issue a…