Court Opinion

ID: 9835417
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 02:23:26.685108+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:45:03.599025
License: Public Domain

Pregerson, J.,
dissenting:
I dissent. Joshua was convicted for a crime that occurred when he was 17 years old. He was investigated by a detective who, during preliminary proceedings, twice put incriminating words into Joshua’s mouth, words he never spoke. Joshua was convicted based on evidence that, as the magistrate judge noted, was “far from overwhelming.” In fact, two witnesses explicitly stated, one with complete certainty, that Joshua was not the shooter.
*402Joshua was sentenced to a staggering term of 86 years and 8 months to life, including three 25-year mandatory gang enhancements. Because Joshua was just 17 when the crime was committed, California law now entitles him to a youth offender parole hearing no later than his twenty-fifth year of incarceration. See Cal. Penal Code § 3051(b)(3); People v. Franklin, 63 Cal.4th 261, 268, 202 Cal.Rptr.3d 496, 370 P.3d 1053 (2016). This provides little solace for a young man facing, what very well could be, a life behind bars for a crime in which no one was killed.
For these reasons, I dissent.