State Supreme Court says inmates who didn't kill and protest murder conviction have right to lawyer

The California Supreme Court bolstered a Bay Area lawmaker’s legislation Monday allowing prisoners to challenge their murder convictions for killings committed by others, saying hundreds of inmates who want to use the law to set aside their life sentences have the right to a court-appointed attorney.

SB1437 by Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which took effect in 2019, narrowed California’s “felony murder” law, which allowed anyone taking part in a potentially dangerous felony, such as robbery or burglary, to be convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, or death in some cases, if someone was killed.

Under the new law, one of a series of recent measures aimed at reducing California’s severe sentencing regimen, a murder conviction is allowed only if the defendant intended the killing and directed or aided in it, or acted with “reckless indifference to human life.”

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