BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1084 Page 1 Date of Hearing: August 3, 2016 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Lorena Gonzalez, Chair SB 1084 (Hancock) - As Amended May 11, 2016 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Public Safety |Vote:|5 - 2 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill makes technical clarifying changes to existing provisions of law that authorize a prisoner who was under 18 years of age at the time of committing an offense for which the prisoner was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole (LWOP) to submit a petition for recall and resentencing. Specifically, this bill: 1)Clarifies that, if the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that one or more of the statements in the petition is true, the court must recall the sentence and commitment SB 1084 Page 2 previously ordered and hold a hearing to resentence the defendant. 2)States that the defendant may submit another petition if the sentence is not recalled or the defendant is resentenced to LWOP. 3)Clarifies that the exclusionary factors must have been pled and proved. 4)Specifies that nothing in this bill is intended to diminish or abrogate any rights or remedies otherwise available to the defendant. FISCAL EFFECT: Minor absorbable annual GF costs to the state trial courts. COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, "SB 1084 makes technical non-substantive changes to the provisions allowing a person who was under 18 years of age when sentenced to life without parole to submit a petition for resentencing. The bill clarifies language that has caused some confusion in the courts. 2)Background. In 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to sentence a youth who did not SB 1084 Page 3 commit homicide to LWOP. The Court discussed the fundamental differences between a juvenile and adult offender and reasserted its findings from a prior decision, that juveniles have lessened culpability than adults due to those differences. The Court stated that "life without parole is an especially harsh punishment for a juvenile," noting that a juvenile offender "will on average serve more years and a greater percentage of his life in prison than an adult offender." In 2012, SB 9 (Yee), Chapter 828, Statutes of 2012, was signed into law to address cases where a juvenile was sentenced to LWOP by providing a mechanism for recall and resentencing. Pursuant to SB 9, a person who was under 18 years of age at the time of committing an offense for which the person was sentenced to LWOP could, after serving at least 15 years in prison, petition the court for re-sentencing. If a re-sentencing hearing is granted, the court would have the discretion whether to re-sentence the petitioner to a lower sentence or let the life without parole sentence remain. If granted a lower sentence, the petitioner must still serve the minimum sentence and obtain approval of the parole board and the Governor prior to parole. 3)Support: According to Human Rights Watch, the sponsor of this bill, "We believe there are areas where the law is unclear as written and leading to different interpretations in different courtrooms. It is our hope that this bill will clarify the language of the law and ensure consistency in practice across the state." Analysis Prepared by:Pedro Reyes / APPR. / (916) 319-2081 SB 1084 Page 4