Div. Five of the First District Court of Appeal held Friday that the conviction of a man accused of contacting a minor for lewd purposes, after a law enforcement child predator sting revealed sexual messages he sent to a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, must be reversed due to a trial judge failing to provide any reasoning when denying a defense objection to the prosecutor’s exercise of a peremptory challenge based on the Racial Justice Act.

California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin H. Liu has written a concurring statement to the high court’s denial of a petition for review in a case in which Div. Five of this district’s Court of Appeal held that 2022 amendments to the Penal Code, which favor the imposition of a midterm sentence and provide that an “enhancement” cannot be used to both add time and justify imposition of a high term, do not have any effect on the Three Strikes sentencing scheme.

It’s been 3½ months since Justice Martin Jenkins retired from the California Supreme Court, and more than four months since he announced his retirement. While a parade of state appeals court justices act as temporary replacements, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appointed Jenkins, the court’s first openly gay justice, in October 2020, has not yet chosen his successor.

Judicial Council members at their February 20 business meeting will receive a report showing that litigants and court staff who took part in remote appearances in civil and criminal proceedings had an overwhelmingly positive experience.