People v. Powell CA1/5

I. BACKGROUND

In 2016, a jury convicted Powell of first degree murder with a multiple murder special circumstance as to one victim and second degree murder as to another victim. The jury also found true allegations that Powell personally discharged a firearm during the commission of each offense, causing death or great bodily injury. Powell was 18 years old at the time he committed the murders, and the victims he shot were teenage girls. (People v. Powell (Dec. 15, 2017, A149038) [nonpub. opn.].) Powell was sentenced to LWOP plus 65 years to life. In Powell’s appeal from that judgment, this court remanded the matter for the trial court to exercise its newfound discretion to strike the firearm enhancement but otherwise affirmed. (Id. at pp. 6–7.) On remand, the trial court struck the firearm enhancement and resentenced Powell to LWOP plus 40 years to life. In 2022, Powell filed a section 1203.01 motion seeking a Franklin/Cook proceeding so he could preserve mitigating evidence for a future youth offender parole hearing. The motion argued that the exclusion of 18- to 25-year-old offenders sentenced to LWOP from youth offender parole consideration violated Powell’s right to equal…