In re Rodriguez

*89 Opinion

In this appeal, we review whether the superior court properly granted Javier Rodriguez’s petition for habeas corpus relief arising out of a decision by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (the Governor) to reverse the 2008 decision of the Board of Parole Hearings, which had granted Rodriguez parole. For reasons that follow, we conclude that the superior court was correct in granting the petition for habeas corpus relief.

Factual and Procedural Background.

On September 17, 1984, at approximately 9:30 p.m. Rodriguez and his two brothers, Manuel and Elias, went to a convenience store in East San Jose. Elias went into the store. As he was entering the store he noticed Antonio Padilla urinating on the door. Elias told Padilla that urinating on the door was “not proper behavior.” Padilla followed Elias into the store, dragged him outside and proceeded to beat him about the face and kick him in the foot. The police came to the scene, but Padilla had fled by the time they arrived.

The brothers left the convenience store in separate cars. They went to Elias’s and Manuel’s home. At the time Rodriguez lived in Fairfield. Rodriguez and his brother Manuel stayed outside the house…