California’s messy Blakely landslide

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in the wake of the Blakely earthquake, a landslide of opinions are flowing from the California appellate courts. I noted here last month how fast and furious the action is in California, and now there are on-line nearly 100 appellate court cases from California that discuss Blakely.

And, as if the post-Blakely world in California was not messy enough, a reader highlighted today that Blakely has led to some noteworthy in-fighting among one appellate division. In People v. Eugene, D044043 (Cal. App. Ct. Oct. 25, 2004), and People v. Wagener, D042896 (Cal. App. Oct. 22, 2004), different panels of the same court split in very vocal ways over whether California’s sentencing scheme is constitutional after Blakely.

As detailed here, briefing is far along in the two cases, People v. Towne and People v. Black, that the California Supreme Court is using to examine Blakely issues. Obviously, to bring greater order to California sentencing, decisions in these cases cannot come soon enough.