Tomorrow morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in People v. Hernandez and People v. Shove. (Briefs here; oral argument videos here and here.)
Hernandez might be one of those rare “rescue missions.” (See here.)
As summarized by court staff, the issue in Hernandez is: “Does the totality of the circumstances establish that defendant meaningfully understood the immigration consequences of her plea?” The court later directed supplemental briefing on this question: “Assuming for the sake of argument that Defendant has established error, has she demonstrated a ‘reasonable probability’ that she would not have pled guilty had she ‘correctly understood [the] actual or potential immigration consequences’ of doing so (People v. Vivar (2021) 11 Cal.5th 510, 529)?” The court granted review in December 2023. More about the case here, here, and here. Sixth District Court of Appeal Justice Allison Danner is the pro tem.
Shove is an automatic direct appeal from a March 2008 judgment of death. Unlike in discretionary review cases, the court’s website does not list issues for death penalty appeals. Counsel was appointed in January 2013. Initial party briefing was completed in November 2018. The last supplemental brief was filed in March 2022. Over the course of the appeal, the defendant has made numerous pro se submissions to the court, including multiple motions to remove his state public defender as his counsel. The court denied all the motions and returned the remainder of the submissions. Third District Presiding Justice Laurie Earl is the pro tem.
These opinions will leave undecided two of the six late-May calendar cases; opinions in those two are expected on Monday. There are also four more undecided June calendar cases with opinions due by August 31.
The Hernandez and Shove opinions can be viewed tomorrow starting at 10:00 a.m.
