People v. Mitchell

Summary

The California Supreme Court holds that Penal Code section 1170(b), as amended by Senate Bill 567, applies retroactively to nonfinal judgments involving negotiated upper-term sentences. A defendant who entered a plea bargain with a stipulated upper term may waive the amended requirements and retain the original sentence, agree to modify the bargain, or withdraw from the bargain and return to a pre-plea posture. The court reverses the Court of Appeal and remands for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The amended requirements of Penal Code section 1170(b) apply retroactively under In re Estrada to nonfinal judgments involving upper-term sentences stipulated as part of plea bargains.
2. A plea bargain specifying an upper-term sentence may relieve the trial court of independently determining whether aggravating facts justify the upper term only if the defendant validly waives the requirements of section 1170(b).
3. The appropriate remedy is a remand permitting the defendant to waive or invoke section 1170(b)'s requirements; the defendant is not entitled to a unilateral reduction to the middle term while retaining the benefits of the plea bargain.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the retroactive amendments to Penal Code section 1170(b) apply to a nonfinal judgment imposing an upper-term sentence stipulated as part of a plea bargain.
2. Whether Mitchell validly waived the section 1170(b) requirements when she entered her plea before those rights were recognized or conferred.
3. Whether the proper remedy is unilateral reduction of the sentence or a remand allowing waiver, modification of the plea bargain, or withdrawal of the plea.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded