Superior
Court Orange County, Christopher Evans, Nos. 13WF3934,
Ct.App. 4/3 G051142 Temporary Judge
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COUNSEL
Christian
C. Buckley, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for
Defendant and Appellant.
Stephen
P. Lipson, Public Defender (Ventura) and Michael C. McMahon,
Chief Deputy Public Defender, for California Public Defenders
Association and Public Defender of Ventura County as Amici
Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant.
Kamala
D. Harris, Attorney General, Gerald A. Engler, Chief
Assistant Attorney General, Julie L. Garland, Assistant
Attorney General, Joshua A. Klein, Deputy State Solicitor
General, Charles C. Ragland, Samuel Siegel,
Page 403
Marvin E. Mizell, Arlene A. Sevidal and Sean M. Rodriquez,
Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
OPINION
Chin,
J.
Proposition
47, an initiative measure the electorate passed in November
2014, reduced certain drug-related and property crimes from
felonies to misdemeanors. The measure also provided that,
under certain circumstances, a person who had received a
felony sentence for one of the reduced crimes could be
resentenced and receive a misdemeanor sentence. A person so
resentenced is entitled to credit for time already served.
Often the credit for time served will exceed the new
sentence, thus entitling the person to immediate release from
custody.
Penal
Code section 1170.18, subdivision (d), part of the same
initiative measure, provides that a person who has been
resentenced under the measure and given credit for time
served “shall be subject to parole for one year
following completion of his or her sentence, unless the
court, in its discretion, as part of its resentencing order,
releases the person from parole.”[1] We must decide
whether excess credit for time served can be credited against
this parole period, which could shorten it or reduce it to no
parole at all.
We
conclude that credit for time served does not reduce the
parole period. When it voted on Proposition 47, the
electorate was informed, and it intended, that a person who
benefitted from the new legislation by receiving a reduced
sentence would be placed on parole for one year after
completion of the reduced sentence, subject to the
court’s discretion to release the person from that
parole.
I.
...