People v. Berry-Vierwinden
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In 2010, Ryan Berry-Vierwinden was convicted of first degree murder in the state of California. Berry-Vierwinden did not commit the murder himself but was convicted as an aider and abettor. The prosecution argued that he and Benjamin Medina, the actual murderer, had planned to murder the victim, Krishana F., by means of lying in wait. Berry-Vierwinden was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
In 2022, Berry-Vierwinden filed a petition for resentencing under Penal Code section 1172.6, which allows defendants to petition for resentencing if they could not presently be convicted of murder or attempted murder due to legislative changes made effective January 1, 2019. Berry-Vierwinden claimed that he was eligible for relief because the jury instructions given at his trial permitted the jury to convict him of first degree murder by imputing malice to him based solely on his participation in a crime.
The Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District Division One State of California, affirmed the trial court's denial of the petition for resentencing. The court noted that at the time of his trial in 2010, California law did not allow a direct aider and abettor to be convicted of a lying-in-wait murder on an imputed malice theory. The court reasoned that the legislative changes made in 2019 did not change this aspect of the law. Thus, Berry-Vierwinden's argument that he could not presently be convicted of murder due to the changes made in 2019 was not valid. As such, he did not meet the requirements to establish a prima facie case for relief under Penal Code section 1172.6.
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