California v. Vance
Annotate this CasePetitioner Gregory Vance, Jr., his girlfriend (and codefendant) Katherine Schumann, and the victim were operating a fraudulent check-cashing scheme. Vance and Schumann suspected the victim of taking more than his share of the proceeds. Armed with knives, they went to the victim’s home. By the time they left, the victim had been fatally stabbed. According to the prosecution’s evidence, it was Vance who stabbed the victim; according to petitioner, it was Schumann. Vance was convicted of (among other things) first degree murder, on a felony murder theory, and sentenced to 56 years to life in prison. The trial court denied Vance’s petition under Penal Code section 1172.61 to vacate his murder conviction. He appealed, arguing the trial court erred by: (1) considering only the facts as stated in the Court of Appeal’s opinion in Vance’s direct appeal, rather than the facts as shown by the record of conviction; and (2) applying an erroneously low burden of proof. After review, the Court of Appeal found Vance’s counsel forfeited the trial court’s erroneous reliance on the Court’s prior opinion by failing to object, and that in the absence of any objection, that prior opinion constituted substantial evidence. The Court also held that, in a section 1172.6 proceeding, the trial court’s erroneous application of an unduly low burden of proof was not reversible per se. “Rather, the appellant has the burden of showing that it is reasonably probable that, in the absence of the error, he or she would have enjoyed a more favorable outcome. As Vance has not even tried to meet this burden, we cannot say the error was prejudicial.”
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