One of the key reforms in Proposition 66 is a requirement that one of a death row inmate's challenges to his conviction and sentence be assigned to the original trial judge. The challenge in question is called "habeas corpus" and is separate from the appeal on the trial record, which will continue to go to the state supreme court.
Today, the California Supreme Court, quoting an earlier Court of Appeal ruling, said, "When the judge assigned to examine and rule on the habeas corpus petition is the same judge who presided at the petitioner's criminal trial, 'there is no judge better suited for making a determination of the issues raised in [the] petitioner‟s petition' ...." This statement appears in today's unanimous ruling in Maas v. Superior Court, S225109, a case concerning when a habeas corpus petitioner may challenge the assigned judge.
This confirms what we have been saying all along. To decide a challenge to a conviction efficiently and fairly, the best judge to assign it to in nearly all cases is the one already familiar with the case by virtue of having presided over the trial. Habeas corpus petitions rarely involve claims of judicial misconduct, but when they do Proposition 66 provides for assignment to a different judge for good cause. This is just one of the common sense reforms that would be enacted by Proposition 66 to make the system work. These reforms are opposed without valid reasons by people who simply do not want the system to work.
Today, the California Supreme Court, quoting an earlier Court of Appeal ruling, said, "When the judge assigned to examine and rule on the habeas corpus petition is the same judge who presided at the petitioner's criminal trial, 'there is no judge better suited for making a determination of the issues raised in [the] petitioner‟s petition' ...." This statement appears in today's unanimous ruling in Maas v. Superior Court, S225109, a case concerning when a habeas corpus petitioner may challenge the assigned judge.
This confirms what we have been saying all along. To decide a challenge to a conviction efficiently and fairly, the best judge to assign it to in nearly all cases is the one already familiar with the case by virtue of having presided over the trial. Habeas corpus petitions rarely involve claims of judicial misconduct, but when they do Proposition 66 provides for assignment to a different judge for good cause. This is just one of the common sense reforms that would be enacted by Proposition 66 to make the system work. These reforms are opposed without valid reasons by people who simply do not want the system to work.
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