1st District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 30, 2026
The First District affirms dismissal of three state charges against David DePape — including attempted murder — under California's statutory double jeopardy protection, holding that mental-state elements cannot save a state charge when the required physical act was already proved in a prior federal conviction.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 30, 2026
The First District holds that a trial court's mathematical error in calculating presentence custody credits is a clerical error the court can correct at any time — but that correction does not render the judgment nonfinal or entitle the defendant to full resentencing under ameliorative legislation, rejecting a contrary line of cases.
4th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 29, 2026
The Fourth District held that a trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to apply Penal Code section 1170(b)(6)'s lower-term presumption for childhood trauma where the defendant failed to establish any causal connection between the trauma and his robbery conviction committed at age 36.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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June 29, 2026
The Ninth Circuit ruled that sovereign immunity does not block a person from recovering seized cash that a federal agent stole and the government later recouped in restitution proceedings, reversing summary judgment for the government in a case where an FBI agent pocketed $218,200 of money seized during a drug investigation.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 26, 2026
The Fourth District holds that Penal Code § 1172.75(d)(4) permits a resentencing court to reimpose an originally imposed upper term without new jury findings or stipulations, even if the court considers different aggravating factors.
California Supreme Court, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 25, 2026
The California Supreme Court holds that Penal Code section 2900.5 awards custody credits on a case-by-case basis — consolidating multiple prosecutions at a single sentencing hearing does not entitle a defendant to credit the same period of custody against all cases.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 25, 2026
The Fourth District holds that officers who reasonably but mistakenly identified a juvenile as a murder-warrant fugitive had probable cause to arrest him, and that after realizing the mistake they lawfully searched him incident to a resisting-arrest charge, making the discovered firearm admissible.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Immigration
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June 25, 2026
In its first post-Loper Bright interpretation of the federal immigration removal ground for crimes of child abuse, the Ninth Circuit holds that the statute covers child endangerment, requires criminal negligence mens rea, and applies regardless of whether the defendant is the child's parent — and that California Penal Code § 273a(a) falls within its scope.
1st District Court of Appeal, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law
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June 24, 2026
The First District holds that California's 2025 elimination of joint and several liability in juvenile restitution cases applies prospectively only, leaving pre-2025 restitution orders intact even for pending appeals.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 22, 2026
The Second Appellate District affirmed denial of pretrial mental health diversion under Penal Code § 1001.36, holding that the trial court had substantial evidence to find the statutory presumption rebutted where the defendant's diagnosed depressive disorder — characterized by poor concentration and forgetfulness — was fundamentally inconsistent with years of coordinated, sophisticated financial crimes.
1st District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 17, 2026
The First District reversed a second-degree murder conviction because the trial court failed to clarify — when the jury asked mid-deliberation — that the rule ending self-defense once danger passes does not also eliminate the lesser defense of imperfect self-defense.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
June 17, 2026
In an en banc opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed denial of habeas relief to an Arizona death-row prisoner, clarifying that merely including an underlying petition as an exhibit does not 'fairly present' a claim to a state supreme court, and that Martinez v. Ryan requires a showing of reasonable probability of a different outcome in state postconviction proceedings — not just the potential merit of the underlying IAC claim.
1st District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 12, 2026
When a SWAT team uses gas, drones, and robots to flush a suspect from his apartment, the resulting arrest is treated as an in-home arrest — but California's First District upheld the conviction anyway because the underlying warrant affidavit, even with false statements excised, still established probable cause.
3rd District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law, Healthcare Law
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June 12, 2026
A trial court may deny mental health diversion under Penal Code section 1001.36 when a defendant proposes returning to the same treatment program that previously failed to address his needs — even if the court frames its analysis in terms of treatment adequacy rather than the statutory suitability factors.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 12, 2026
In the first California published decision on investigative genetic genealogy, the Fourth District held that a rapist has no reasonable expectation of privacy in semen left at a crime scene — and that law enforcement's use of that DNA for genealogical database searches to identify him did not constitute a Fourth Amendment search.
2nd District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 11, 2026
Applying the California Supreme Court's recent People v. Mitchell decision, the Second District held that Senate Bill 567's restrictions on imposing upper-term sentences apply retroactively to defendants resentenced after probation revocation — even defendants who absconded for years and whose cases remained non-final only because of their own misconduct.
6th District Court of Appeal, Criminal Law
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June 11, 2026
A Three Strikes prisoner who successfully petitioned under Proposition 47 to redesignate a grand theft conviction as a misdemeanor is entitled to a full resentencing on all counts — but must still satisfy Proposition 36's public safety standard before the court can reduce his indeterminate Three Strikes sentence.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 5, 2026
The Ninth Circuit denies qualified immunity to two former SFPD inspectors accused of fabricating evidence that led to Joaquin Ciria's 32-year wrongful imprisonment, holding that the right not to be charged based on deliberately fabricated evidence was clearly established by 1990.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 3, 2026
Ninth Circuit affirms firearms convictions, holding that silencers are optional accessories outside the Second Amendment’s plain text and that the NFA’s registration requirements are a constitutional shall-issue licensing regime.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 2, 2026
The Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, reverses a district court that ended a $1.1 million civil forfeiture case as a discovery sanction, holding that the claimant established standing and gave the government enough information to investigate his ownership claim.
California Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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June 1, 2026
The California Supreme Court affirms a double gang-murder defendant's convictions but reverses his 1994 death sentence under the retroactive California Racial Justice Act of 2020, requiring a new penalty-phase trial in a case that has been on automatic appeal for over three decades.
California Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 1, 2026
The California Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the death sentence of a Los Angeles father convicted of the torture-murders of two young children, holding that months of deliberate beatings, starvation, and medical neglect provided sufficient evidence of premeditated torturous intent, and that confrontation clause error in admitting a non-testifying expert's hearsay was harmless in light of the overwhelming independent evidence of abuse.
California Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
automatic /
June 1, 2026
The California Supreme Court reverses a death-row defendant's convictions entirely because his attorney conceded guilt over the client's explicit objection — a structural constitutional error requiring automatic reversal — while affirming the co-defendant's death sentence and vacating both defendants' gang enhancements under California's reformed gang statute.
California Supreme Court, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Litigation
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June 1, 2026
The California Supreme Court affirms a death sentence for the 1999 rape-murder of an Oakland 11-year-old, holding that a suspect who voluntarily accompanies police to the station and is briefly placed in a lockable interview room has not been seized under the Fourth Amendment — and clarifying when victim impact testimony from a teacher may be admitted at a capital penalty phase.
4th District Court of Appeal, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law
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May 28, 2026
The Fourth District conditionally reverses gang murder convictions, finding the trial court applied the wrong legal standards when denying Racial Justice Act motions and discovery requests based on the prosecution's introduction of a rap song at trial.