People v. Taylor CA5

INTRODUCTION

In 2001, a jury convicted petitioner Tramell Vernon Taylor of first degree murder (Pen. Code,1 § 187, subd. (a), count 2).2 As to the murder offense, the jury found true the special circumstance that petitioner committed the murder while engaged in the commission or attempted commission of robbery (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(A)). The trial court subsequently sentenced petitioner to a term of life without the possibility of parole. (People v. Taylor et al. (Oct. 14, 2003, F039096) [nonpub. opn.] (Taylor).) In 2019, petitioner filed a petition for resentencing on his murder conviction pursuant to section 1170.95. The trial court summarily denied the petition without providing a statement of reasons as to why it did not issue an order to show cause. On appeal, petitioner contends the trial court erred by engaging in premature judicial factfinding and applying a “sufficiency of the evidence” test at the prima facie stage. Petitioner further contends that he is not ineligible for resentencing as a matter of law because our Supreme Court’s holdings in People v. Banks (2015) 61 Cal.4th 788 (Banks) and People v. Clark (2016) 63 Cal.4th 522 (Clark) substantively changed the legal…