People v. Williams CA4/1

DISCUSSION

Senate Bill No. 1437 “ ‘amend[ed] the felony murder rule and the natural and probable consequences doctrine, as it relates to murder, to ensure that murder liability is not imposed on a person who is not the actual killer, did not act with the intent to kill, or was not a major participant in the

3 underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life.’ ” (People v. Lewis (2021) 11 Cal.5th 952, 959 (Lewis).) To accomplish this, it revised sections 188 and 189 and added section 1172.6 to create a procedure by which defendants previously convicted of murder under a now- unavailable theory of liability can seek resentencing. (Lewis, at p. 959.) With Senate Bill 775, the Legislature expanded this form of relief to include murder convictions stemming from “any theory under which malice is imputed to a person based solely on that person’s participation in a crime,” as well as attempted murder and manslaughter convictions that were similarly based on the prosecution’s ability to proceed under a felony murder or natural and probable consequences doctrine. (Stats. 2021, ch. 551 (2021– 2022 Reg. Sess.); § 188, subd. (a)(3).) Williams claims the trial court erred…