The Court of Appeal affirms the trial court’s resentencing under PC 1172.1. The trial court struck defendant’s firearm enhancements (PC 12022.53), vacated the first-degree murder convictions, and imposed judgment on lesser offenses of second-degree murder. The Court rejects the prosecution’s argument that because the jury had found a special circumstance to be true, the trial court’s ruling violated PC 1385.1 which prohibits a court from dismissing any special circumstance found true by a jury in a death penalty or LWOP case. Instead, the Court finds that the special circumstances fell away by operation of law, not by a court’s dismissal.

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/G064577.PDF