Governor Gavin Newsom signed 25 bills on October 8, 2019, which address criminal justice reform in California. These new laws end some mandatory sentencing enhancements, make the expungement process easier, and ban law enforcement officials from having body cameras equipped with facial recognition technology.
The following are some of the notable measures signed the Gov. Newsom:
- AB 1076 – This law requires the California Department of Justice to create an automated record clearance system to automatically expunge criminal records of individuals who have been convicted of low-level crimes. Registered sex offenders or those with pending criminal cases are not eligible for automatic expungement under this bill. The new law goes into effect on January 1, 2021 and isn’t retroactive.
- AB 484 – This law ends a mandatory 180-day minimum sentence before probation for drug possession involving certain substances such as heroin, powder cocaine, and crack cocaine.
- SB 136 – This law eliminates the one-year sentence enhancement applied to a person’s base sentence for each previous felony jail or prison terms served.
- AB 1423 – Juvenile offenders who were charged as adults can request their case return to juvenile court if they allegedly committed a felony at the age of 16 or older but the facts of the case turn out to be false. When it comes to transfer hearings, the juvenile court automatically assumes a minor committed an alleged offense prior to investigating the incident or interviewing witnesses.
- AB 1215 – This law prohibits police officers from using, installing, or activating facial recognition software in body-worn cameras.
- AB 1600 – This law shortens the notice requirement in criminal cases from 16 days to 10 days when a defendant files a motion to discover law enforcement misconduct.
- SB 310 – This law allows a person who has been convicted of a felony to serve on a jury, unless he/she is a registered sex offender or under any form of supervision for a felony conviction.
For more information about all the new laws in California, visit the official website of the State of California. If you have been arrested for a crime in Riverside, contact Blumenthal & Moore today at (951) 682-5110 today.