People v. Lopez
Annotate this CaseThe People appeal postjudgment orders granting probation to Raul Alberto Lopez and Freddie Chacon after the trial court recalled their sentences pursuant to newly amended Penal Code section 1170, subdivision (d). Defendants were sentenced to life without possibility of parole (LWOP), in 1994, for crimes they committed as juveniles. The People contend that the trial court was without jurisdiction to recall the sentences after the LWOP sentences were modified to simple life sentences in 2012 pursuant to Graham v. Florida. The People contend that the court should adopt the plain meaning of the rule. The court explained that modification of the LWOP sentences because of the Graham opinion should not render them ineligible for resentencing. If that were the rule, every juvenile offender who exercised his/her Eighth Amendment right to modify a LWOP sentence would be precluded from filing a section 1170, subdivision (d)(2) petition for resentencing. The court agreed with the trial court’s articulated rationale and its common sense appraisal of the case. The court noted that, in an appropriate case, the letter of the law should gracefully and charitably succumb to the spirit of justice. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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