Recently passed sentencing laws can not be applied to past, final cases, the Fourth Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled June 27.
The court rejected Tarrell Boyd’s argument that an error with his pretrial credits invalidated his entire sentence.
Boyd was convicted in 2006 of four felony counts: assault with a semiautomatic firearm, shooting at an inhabited building or vehicle, possession of a firearm by a felon and dissuading a witness. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison with 610 days of custody credits and 91 days of conduct credits.
In 2023, 17 years into his sentence, Boyd moved for a credit recalculation and a new sentencing hearing. At the hearing on the motion, Riverside Superior Judge Elaine Kiefer found that he should have received 616 days of custody credits and 92 days of conduct credits due to an improper accrual start date, and ordered his sentence to be changed. He then appealed, arguing that he should be fully resentenced under new sentencing laws that would result in a lesser sentence.
The appellate ruling found that the error was a judicial error that required a high burden fix, not a clerical error that Kiefer can easily change. The court, as a result, vacated Kiefer’s order. Despite this, the appellate court treated Boyd’s petition as a petition for habeas corpus, found that his sentence should be changed, and ordered it to be done.
The appellate court found that none of the cases Boyd wanted to be resentenced for were intended to apply to cases that are final. He also did not show that his credit error infects his entire sentence, the court found.
His petition asked for him to be resentenced under Senate Bill 620 (2018), which would allow the trial court to strike firearm enhancements; Senate Bill 1393 (2018), which would allow the court to strike serious felony enhancements; and Assembly Bill 124 (2022), which created a presumption of a low prison term when the defendant is younger than 26 years old.
None of these bills were intended to apply to finalized cases, the Court of Appeal found.
Associate Justice Michael Raphael wrote the opinion, which Justices Carol Codrington and Richard Fields joined.
John Staley, under appointment, represented Boyd.
Deputy Attorneys General Paige Hazard and Steve Oetting represented the people.
Riverside Superior Court Case No. SWF008183
Fourth Appellate District, Division 2, Case No. E081005
Read the opinion here
