Juvenile justice.

Plain English Breakdown

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Juvenile Justice Changes

This law makes it harder for certain young people who committed serious crimes to get their sentences changed and allows prosecutors to move some younger teens accused of violent offenses into adult court.

What This Bill Does

• It stops people under 18 when they did a crime from getting their life sentence without parole changed if they were found guilty of multiple murders, mass shootings, or crimes in school zones or places of worship.
• It lets prosecutors ask to move younger teens (ages 14-15) who have already been convicted as adults and are now being resentenced back into adult court for new serious offenses.

Who It Names or Affects

• People under 18 when they committed crimes who might get life without parole
• Prosecutors in cases involving minors accused of serious offenses

Terms To Know

Mass shooting

A violent incident where multiple people are shot and injured or killed.

Resentencing

The process of reviewing a sentence to possibly change it.

Limits and Unknowns

• It does not say what happens if someone under 18 commits a crime in another type of location.
• It is unclear how many people will be affected by these changes.
• This law only applies within the state where it was passed and may vary from other states' laws.

Official Summary Text

AB 1959, as amended, Patel.
Juvenile justice.
Existing law allows a person sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole who was under 18 years of age at the time of the offense to petition the court for recall of their sentence and resentencing, as specified. Existing law prohibits a person from seeking recall and resentencing pursuant to these provisions if it is pleaded and proved that the person committed certain offenses and the victim was a public safety official, including any law enforcement personnel.
This bill would additionally prohibit a person from seeking recall and resentencing pursuant to these provisions where it was pled and proved that the defendant, within the same proceeding, has been convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or 2nd degree, that the offense constitutes a mass shooting, as defined, or that the offense was committed in
a school zone or on the property of a place of worship.
Existing law, as amended by the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016, enacted by Proposition 57 at the November 8, 2016, statewide general election, authorizes the district attorney to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a court of criminal jurisdiction in a case in which a minor is alleged to have committed a felony when the minor was 16 years of age or older, or in a case in which a specified serious offense is alleged to have been committed by a minor when the minor was 14 or 15 years of age, but the minor was not apprehended prior to the end of juvenile court jurisdiction.
This bill would, consistent with the intent of Proposition 57, authorize the district attorney to make a motion to transfer a minor from juvenile court to a court of criminal jurisdiction when the minor is alleged to have committed certain
specified offenses when the minor was 14 or 15 years of
age.
age and was previously convicted in a court of criminal jurisdiction and is now subject to resentencing in juvenile court pursuant to specified provisions.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF