California Court of Appeal

A habeas petition pursuant to a statute enacted in 2001 for the benefit of individuals like petitioner, who were convicted of murdering their abusive partners prior to a Supreme Court decision recognizing imperfect or unreasonable self-defense, is granted and her conviction is vacated as, in light of developments in the law, there was a reasonable probability, sufficient to undermine confidence in the verdict, that the result of petitioner's trial would have been different had evidence of imperfect self-defense been presented.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/05/2007
• Published 02/05/2007

Judges

• PERLUSS, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Latham & Watkins, Beth Collins-Burgard and Daniel Seltzer, Los Angeles, for Petitioner, Hudie Joyce Walker.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson and Mary Jo Graves, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Robert F. Katz and Robert C. Schneider, Deputy Attorneys General, for Respondent the People.