The Fifth District Court of Appeal held Friday that a murderer facing life in prison without the possibility of parole is entitled to a full resentencing hearing—at which a judge must consider “any changes in law that reduce [penalties] or provide for judicial discretion”—based on the fact that his sentence includes three one-year enhancements under a now-defunct scheme authorizing additional custody time for previous terms of incarceration.

Div. One of the First District Court of Appeal has held that a trial judge rightly granted anti-SLAPP motions filed by a journalist and an airline-insiders trade publication in a lawsuit filed by a small, regional carrier accusing them of libel over a story discussing a regulatory investigation into how the company logs flight hours for new pilots, rejecting the view that the purportedly esoteric topic and the intended audience are too limited to trigger the “public interest.”

(Subscription required) The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sharply limited the scope of immunity available to bankruptcy trustees, ruling in an en banc decision that a Chapter 7 trustee accused of failing to preserve estate assets could face personal liability.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the denial of a death row inmate’s federal petition for habeas corpus based on allegations that the ex-Orange  Superior Court judge presiding over his trial violated due process principles by making what the petitioner characterized as racist and sexist jokes, describing the crime as “horrendous” and involving “dastardly conduct,” and quipping that “everyone should believe in the death penalty.”