People v. Valencia Baltazar
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Senate Bill No. 620 gave trial courts previously unavailable discretion to strike or dismiss firearm enhancements otherwise required to be imposed by Penal Code sections 12022.5 and 12022.53. There is no dispute that these statutory amendments apply retroactively to cases in which the judgment was not yet final when Senate Bill No. 620 went into effect.
The Court of Appeal dismissed defendant's appeal of the district court's denial of his application to strike the firearm enhancements found true by the jury and added to his sentence. The court explained that Senate Bill No. 620's amendment to section 12022.53, subdivision (h) applies to nonfinal judgments and, by its plain language, extends the bill's benefits to defendants who have exhausted their rights to appeal and for whom a judgment of conviction has been entered but who have obtained collateral relief by way of a state or federal habeas corpus proceeding. Because neither scenario includes defendant, the trial court lacked jurisdiction to modify his sentence. In this case, defendant's judgment became final in 2013, well before the effective date of Senate Bill No. 620.
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