On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinion in People v. Hin, an automatic direct appeal from a February 2006 judgment of death. (Briefs here; oral argument video here.) As in most capital appeals, the opinion will likely address many issues. But one in particular might be especially significant.
The court’s website does not list issues for death penalty appeals. With good reason. The Hin opening brief alone is a 3-volume, 413-page filing with 20 major headings in its argument section.
The one issue with headline potential concerns 2022’s Assembly Bill 2799, which the Legislature enacted to limit an artist’s “creative expression” as evidence in a criminal trial. The stated purpose of the bill, adding Evidence Code section 352.2, was to address the “significant risk of unfair prejudice when rap lyrics are introduced into evidence.”
There are a number of non-capital grand-and-hold cases waiting for the Hin opinion and also the opinion in another pending death penalty appeal, People v. Bankston. When those cases were held, court staff stated that Hin and Bankston “include an issue involving the retroactivity of the provision in Assembly Bill No. 2799 (Stats. 2022, ch. 973) limiting the admissibility of creative expressions (Evid. Code, § 352.2).” (See here and here.)
This will be the last of three opinions in the November calendar cases. Other argued but undecided cases are the four on the December calendar (opinions due by March 3, except for the death penalty appeal in People v. McGhee, in which the opinion isn’t due until April 3 because of post-argument briefing) and the three on the January calendar (opinions due by April 7).
The Hin opinion can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.
