Parole: youth offender parole hearings.

Existing law, as added by the Briggs Initiative, an initiative statute approved by the voters at the November 7, 1978, statewide general election, requires that persons convicted of first-degree murder be subject to death, life in prison without the possibility of parole, or confinement in the state prison for a term of 25 years to life. Existing law, as added by Proposition 115 at the June 5, 1990, statewide primary election, requires that a person found guilty of murder in the first degree, when special circumstances have been found to be true, who was 16 years of age or older and under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime, be punished by confinement in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole or, at the discretion of the court, by 25 years to life. Existing United States Supreme Court case law holds that a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for a juvenile offender violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Existing law allows a defendant who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of an offense for which the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole to petition the court for recall and resentencing after the defendant has been incarcerated for at least 15 years. This bill would delete the authority of a defendant who was under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense to petition for a recall of the sentence and would instead require the court to provide that defendant with a resentencing hearing, except as specified. The bill would require the court to resentence the defendant to a term of imprisonment with the possibility of parole unless the court determines the defendant to be irreparably corrupt or incapable of rehabilitation. The bill would require the court to consider specified factors in making this determination, including, among other things, the defendant's family and home environment, the circumstances of the offense, and any evidence or information bearing on the possibility of rehabilitation. Existing law requires the Board of Parole Hearings to conduct a youth offender parole hearing for a person convicted of a controlling offense that was committed before the person had attained 18 years of age and for which a life sentence without the possibility of parole has been imposed during the person's 25th year of incarceration. Existing law requires the board to complete, by July 1, 2020, all hearings for individuals who are or will be entitled to have their parole suitability considered at a youth offender parole hearing by that provision before July 1, 2020. This bill would exempt from that hearing any person who has a pending resentencing hearing or who was found irreparably corrupt or incapable of rehabilitation.