California Legal Brief

The Rule of In re J.H. is that victims have the constitutional and statutory right to present victim impact statements at juvenile court six-month review hearings under section 875, and courts may consider such statements when limited to components relevant to the minor's rehabilitation and empathy development, under circumstances where a juvenile's baseline confinement term is being reviewed for potential reduction.

The Rule of In re E.J. is that Penal Code section 29820, which prohibits minors adjudged wards of the juvenile court for specified offenses from possessing firearms until age 30, is facially constitutional under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, under circumstances where the prohibition is based on a prior juvenile adjudication for qualifying criminal conduct.

The Rule of In re O.F. is that a juvenile court cannot transfer a minor to criminal court based on evidence that does not meet the clear and convincing standard or without proper consideration of mandatory rehabilitative factors, under circumstances where the minor has demonstrated consistent willingness to engage in available treatment and programming while in custody.

The Rule of **People v. Diaz** is that trial courts are not required to expressly state they have considered a defendant's youth when determining whether the defendant acted with express malice/intent to kill in section 1172.6 proceedings, under circumstances where the court is aware of the defendant's age and counsel argues youth as a mitigating factor but the court finds the defendant personally intended the victims' deaths.