The Court of Appeal finds that the record conclusively establishes appellant is ineligible for relief under PC 1172.6. The Court agrees that the trial court erred at the prima facie stage by engaging in fact finding that involved weighing the evidence presented at trial, but the appellate court reviews whether the challenged ruling is correct, not the analysis used to reach it. Even if appellant was convicted of murder as an aider and abettor in 2017, at that time it was clear that a direct aider and abettor could not be convicted of murder without personally harboring malice. Thus appellant is ineligible for relief under PC 1172.6 as a matter of law.

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A171126.PDF