California prosecutors push to overturn new law on who can be guilty of murder

Eleven years into a possible life sentence, Brian Yang won his release from prison. It had a lot to do with where he committed his crime.

Yang, 29, was convicted of murder for his role in a 2008 robbery that led to the death of a San Francisco man. A recent change to state law meant he could petition for resentencing because, although he was involved in the holdup, he was not the one who pulled the trigger.

A month after the San Francisco district attorney’s office conceded the case, sending Yang home to his family, he is still processing his freedom. “I just enjoy being able to step outside whenever I want and just breathe in air,” he said.

Some 400 miles to the southeast in San Bernardino County, the courts have blocked dozens of similar petitions from being heard. Local judges have ruled that the new law, limiting when an accomplice to a fatal crime can be charged with murder, is unconstitutional.

Bombarded by hundreds of petitions to revisit past murder cases, district attorneys across the state are seeking to overturn the accomplice liability law. It is all but inevitable that the legal challenges will end up before the California Supreme Court.

Supporters of the law say about a dozen people, mostly in the Bay Area and Los Angeles County, have successfully petitioned for resentencing and been released since the change took effect Jan. 1. But in many counties, prosecutors are aggressively fighting inmates’ efforts.

“It doesn’t matter what you did — it’s where you did it,” said Kate Chatfield, a senior policy adviser for the criminal justice advocacy group the Justice Collaborative, who spearheaded the legislative push to overhaul California’s rules on accomplice liability for murder. Read more >>>