AUTO-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO:
This is Aaron Spolin. I’m a Criminal Appeals attorney. And I wanted to make a short video about AB 1310, which is a proposed law. That would do a lot for a lot of inmates in California prisons. I want to make a note, this analysis was created in August of 2023. So the law may have been changed since that time, and anyone is welcome to call our firm if you want to find out whether the law applies to your case, or would apply to your case. Right now it is in a draft form and is not an actual law yet. So first of all, what is AB 1310? It is a proposed new law to resentence inmates with gun enhancements. So essentially, if you’ve got a gun enhancement, this would very likely affect you. And what would happen to those gun enhancements? Well, everyone with gun enhancement would get a resentencing. That does not mean the gun enhancement would go away. But, if this law were to pass in its current form everyone would get a re sentencing hearing in superior court where a judge could remove the enhancement, and the judge could potentially modify the sentence in other ways. So when would this go into effect? Well, if it were passed in its current form, October 1 2024, is going to go into effect. So that’s in about a year or so. And one question is: would a resentencing be guaranteed? Yes, it would be under the current proposed law. But there’s a serious limitation. The outcome is not guaranteed. Under the current law at resentencing, a judge could choose to keep the gun enhancement and could choose not to remove other enhancements. So essentially, even though the resentencing would be guaranteed under the current text of the law, actually getting a lower sentence is not guaranteed. And that will be up to the judge. So how does the judge decide? Well, the law lays out a number of factors that a judge is supposed to look at in deciding whether to remove a gun enhancement. Many of those factors are mentioned in a law called AB 256 about race, whether race played a role in the conviction or the sentence. Another one is whether there are multiple enhancements on one case; multiple enhancements make it more likely that the judge should remove the gun enhancement. If there are enhancements that are 20 years or more, that makes it more likely that the judge should remove the enhancement. Mental illness is a factor that judges are supposed to look at. Childhood trauma is another factor listed in this law and its current form that judges are supposed to look at. Whether prior convictions are old, more than five years old from before the crime in question that got the gun enhancement. There are many, many other factors as well risk of violence, age, time served behavior. And there’s a catch-all factor judges are supposed to consider: whether it is in the interest of justice to remove a gun enhancement. So that is AB 1310. The attorneys at Spolin & Dukes have heard lots of questions about AB 1310 from our clients, from current clients and future clients, and we’re open to answering questions. And obviously a disclaimer is that prior success that we’ve gotten in other cases does not guarantee future success. Either way, looking forward to hearing from you.