The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that corrections officials need not consider earlier release for violent felons, even those whose primary offense is considered nonviolent under state law.
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that corrections officials need not consider earlier release for violent felons, even those whose primary offense is considered nonviolent under state law.The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that corrections officials need not consider earlier release for violent felons, even those whose primary offense is considered nonviolent under state law.
The justices said that includes prisoners serving sentences for a combination of violent and nonviolent felonies. The broadest interpretation of the lower court’s finding to the contrary would have required earlier release consideration for the vast majority of inmates, the department argued, since most are serving time for both violent and nonviolent felonies.
"Nobody thought this provision would apply to anyone with a violent conviction. And to take an extremely literal view of the language and apply it in a way that nobody on either side thought it was going to be applied would be absurd," said Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation that filed a friend of the court brief opposing such a broad interpretation.
The case was brought by inmate Mohammad Mohammad, now age 44, who in 2012 pleaded no contest to nine counts of second-degree robbery, which are considered violent felonies, and six counts of receiving stolen property — nonviolent crimes. His attorney, Heather MacKay, said she was disappointed but may file a new challenge starting over again in county superior court, based on some of the questions left unresolved by Monday’s decision.
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