On Monday morning, the Supreme Court will file its opinions in In re Milton and People v. Hendrix. (Briefs here and here; oral argument videos here and here.)
Milton will be the sixth of seven opinions for cases argued on the late-May calendar. The opinions in the other case, a death penalty appeal with post-argument briefing, should file by September 12. Hendrix will be the third of eight opinions for June calendar cases. The remaining five opinions should file by September 1.
In Milton, the court is expected to address whether the limitations of People v. Gallardo (2017) 4 Cal.5th 120 [see here] on judicial fact-finding about the basis for a prior conviction apply retroactively to final judgments. (Compare In re Milton (2019) 42 Cal.App.5th 977 with In re Brown (2020) 45 Cal.App.5th 699.) The court granted review in March 2020.
A week after granting review in Hendrix in January 2021, the court limited the issue to: “Did the Court of Appeal err in holding an instructional error on the defense of mistake of fact harmless? In the circumstances of this case, which standard of prejudice applies to an error in instructing on the defense of mistake of fact: that of People v. Watson (1956) 46 Cal.2d 818 or that of Chapman v. California (1967) 386 U.S. 18?”
The opinions can be viewed Monday starting at 10:00 a.m.