What is the presumption that a new law lessening criminal punishment or reducing criminal liability applies to all cases not yet final on appeal?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Gentile, 10 Cal.5th 830, 272 Cal.Rptr.3d 814, 477 P.3d 539 (Cal. 2020):

Newly enacted legislation lessening criminal punishment or reducing criminal liability presumptively applies to all cases not yet final on appeal at the time of the legislation's effective date. (See Estrada , supra , 63 Cal.2d at pp. 744745, 48 Cal.Rptr. 172, 408 P.2d 948.) This presumption "rests on an inference that, in the absence of contrary indications, a legislative body ordinarily intends for ameliorative changes to the criminal law to extend as broadly as possible, distinguishing only as necessary between sentences that are final and sentences that are not." ( People v. Conley (2016) 63 Cal.4th 646, 657, 203 Cal.Rptr.3d 622, 373 P.3d 435

[477 P.3d 552]

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