People v. Brown CA1/4

Background In 1985, a jury convicted defendant of second degree murder (§ 187) and found he personally used a deadly weapon in the commission of the murder (§ 12022, subd. (b)). Defendant’s conviction was affirmed on appeal in 1986. (People v. Brown (Sept. 19, 1986, A031668) [nonpub. opn.].) Following the January 2019 change in the law on felony murder and the natural and probable consequences doctrine occasioned by Senate Bill

All statutory references are to the Penal code unless otherwise noted.

1 No. 1437 (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 2), defendant filed a pro se petition under section 1170.95 seeking to vacate his second degree murder conviction. The People did not file a written response to defendant’s petition. On December 23, 2019, at the hearing on the matter, at which only the prosecution appeared, the prosecutor advised the trial court she had reviewed the abstract of judgment, the original trial brief, and the original parties’ proposed instructions, and did not believe felony murder was involved. She noted that the jury made a true finding on the deadly weapon use allegation. She asked the trial court to summarily deny the petition. The trial court indicated it had…