Right to Counsel

Name: People v. Lepere (2023) 91 Cal.App.5th 727
Case #: G061393
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 3
Opinion Date: 05/16/2023
Subsequent History: Modified 6/2/2023
  • Categories: By Prosecutor, DNA, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Misconduct, Right to Counsel, Search & Seizure

Motion to suppress DNA evidence was properly denied where the affidavit supporting the search warrant was sufficiently detailed and established probable cause. In 2021, through the use of a genealogy website and DNA extracted from a rape kit, defendant became a…

View Full Summary
Name: In re Kerins (2023) 89 Cal.App.5th 1084
Case #: A165304
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 4
Opinion Date: 03/30/2023
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, Civil Commitments, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Jurisdiction & Venue, Right to Counsel, SVP

Failure to bring SVP defendant to trial more than 14 years after the filing of the SVP petition did not amount to unconstitutional pretrial delay. Kerins was convicted of an SVP-qualifying offense in 1988. He was convicted of additional offenses…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Cooks (2023) 89 Cal.App.5th 1124
Case #: D079706
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 03/30/2023
  • Categories: Restitution, Right to Counsel, Sentencing, Waiver of Counsel

An appeal from trial counsel’s waiver of defendant’s right to be personally present at any future restitution hearing must be dismissed as unripe where no restitution hearing has yet taken place. At defendant’s sentencing, the trial court reserved jurisdiction over victim…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Ruiz (2023) 89 Cal.App.5th 324
Case #: B312062/B317270
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 8
Opinion Date: 03/15/2023
  • Categories: Extraordinary Remedies, Habeas Corpus (State), Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Right to Counsel

Defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel at his resentencing hearing where counsel completely failed to act as an advocate as a result of cognitive issues caused by a brain tumor. In 2018, CDCR sent a recall letter to the trial…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Smothers
Case #: A156081
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 3
Opinion Date: 07/20/2021
  • Categories: Evidence, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Right to Counsel, Scientific Evidence

Trial counsel was prejudicially ineffective for failing to present evidence of the identity of a man whose DNA was found in a murder victim's fingernail scrapings despite a court order allowing counsel to do so. In 1983, a woman was…

View Full Summary
Name: Hulbert v. Cross
Case #: C090663
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 06/11/2021
  • Categories: Areas Constitutional Law, Evidence, Expert Witness, Other, Right to Counsel, Scope of Right

In a medical malpractice action filed by an indigent inmate, the trial court denied the plaintiff meaningful access to the courts when it refused his motion for appointment of an expert. Hulbert, a self-represented indigent inmate, filed a medical malpractice…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Brewer
Case #: C089676
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 3 DCA
Opinion Date: 06/07/2021
  • Categories: Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Right to Counsel, Sentencing

Even assuming defendant was developmentally disabled, trial counsel did not provide ineffective assistance when he failed to challenge defendant's 63-year sentence for multiple armed robberies as cruel or unusual. Brewer was convicted of a series of robberies, with firearm enhancements,…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Clotfelter
Case #: A155659
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 2
Opinion Date: 06/02/2021
  • Categories: Evidence, Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Insufficiency/Sufficiency of, Right to Counsel

There was insufficient evidence to establish defendant's conduct was objectively irritating or disturbing to support a conviction for annoying or molesting a child. Defendant was convicted of multiple sex crimes in the 1980's and sentenced to 10 years in state…

View Full Summary
Name: In re Long
Case #: S249274
Court: CA Supreme Court
District CalSup
Opinion Date: 11/30/2020
  • Categories: Evidence, Expert Witness, Extraordinary Remedies, Habeas Corpus (State), Ineff. Assist. Counsel (IAC), Right to Counsel

Opinion By: Justice Liu (unanimous decision) Trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to consult a time of death expert where the timeline was crucial to the defense theory of the case. In 2005, petitioner Long was convicted of the…

View Full Summary
Name: People v. Stringer
Case #: D073877
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 4 DCA
Division: 1
Opinion Date: 11/07/2019
  • Categories: By CALCRIM Number, Defenses, Jury Instructions, Mistake/Necessity/Duress, Right to Counsel, Self-Representation

Jury instruction for aggravated kidnapping prejudicially allowed conviction under the legally invalid theory that defendant kidnapped to exact money or something valuable from the kidnap victim. A jury convicted Stringer of aggravated kidnapping (Pen. Code, § 209, subd. (a)) and…

View Full Summary