Case Name: In
re Jenson , District: 2 DCA ,
Division: 3 , Case #:
B286056
Opinion
Date: 6/6/2018 , DAR #: 5521
In short youth offender inmate can not be held in prison to serve the terms for their in-prison offenses. Once the Youth is granted Parole s/he should not serve any Thompson case time, UNLESS the in-prison offense involves MALICE AFORETHOUGHT and can be punish with a Life Term.
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Case Holding:
Penal Code section 3051,
which is the later-enacted and more specific statute
regarding parole for youthful offenders, supersedes Penal
Code section 1170.1 with respect to sentences for in-prison
offenses.
In 1979, at age 19, Jenson committed first
degree felony murder. He was convicted and sentenced to 25
years to life. During his first nine years of incarceration,
he committed three in-prison felonies: escape, possession of a
weapon, and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer. The
assault occurred when he was 29 years old. He received
additional time for the in-prison crimes.
Jenson was found
suitable for parole in 2016 at a youth offender parole
hearing, but CDCR did not release him and instead required him
to serve the terms for his in-prison offenses. He filed a
petition for writ of habeas corpus. Held: Petition granted.
Generally, when prisoners serving indeterminate sentences
commit an in-prison offense and a consecutive term is imposed,
that term begins on the date the prisoner is found suitable
for parole. (Pen. Code, § 1170.1, subd. (c).) However, Senate
Bill No. 260, passed in 2013, sought to implement limitations
on juvenile offender sentencing that had been announced in a
number of state and federal cases. To that end, section 3051
established a parole mechanism that provides a defendant
serving a sentence for crimes he committed before age 26 with
an opportunity to obtain release upon demonstrated
rehabilitation.
It states that a qualified offender who
committed a controlling offense as a youth is entitled to a
parole hearing after a fixed period of years, depending on his
sentence. Subdivision (h) states that prisoners who commit
in-prison offenses after age 26 remain eligible for a parole
suitability hearing, so long as any in-prison offense does not
involve malice and cannot be punished by life in prison. This
reflects the Legislature's intent to exempt youth offenders
from the provisions of section 1170.1, subdivision (c) and
supersedes that section in this context.
The full opinion is available on https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2018/b286056.html
NOTE this is a RECAP summary taken from CCAP at www.capcentral.org.
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