A juvenile charged under Proposition 21 may be sentenced as an adult without consideration of a social study. The seventeen-year-old minor in this case was sentenced to an aggregate term of 45 years to life for various assault and weapons charges. The court here considered only the narrow question of whether Penal Code section 1170.19, subdivision (a)(4), required the sentencing court to consider a social study by the probation officer prior to imposing an adult sentence on a Proposition 21 discretionary direct filing. Relying on the plain language of the statute, the Court of Appeal found that the statute did not require the sentencing court to review a social study prior to imposing sentence.
Case Summaries