On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file opinions in two cases involving murders. One is a death penalty appeal; the other concerns possible civil liability for a murder committed by another.
State Department of State Hospitals et al. v. Superior Court, which is the last of the March calendar cases, raises these questions: (1) Did the state comply with the requirement of the Sexually Violent Predator Act (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 6600 et seq.) that it conduct a “full evaluation” of an inmate potentially qualifying as a “sexually violent predator” prior to the inmate’s release? (2) Did the Court of Appeal err in finding that, as a matter of law, plaintiff could not establish that defendants’ actions were a proximate cause of her injuries?
People v. Charles, which was argued on the April calendar, is an automatic appeal from a January 1999 judgment of death.
Both opinions can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.
