Domestic violence: battering: recall and resentencing.

Existing law authorizes every person who is unlawfully imprisoned or restrained of his or her liberty to prosecute a writ of habeas corpus to inquire into the cause of that imprisonment or restraint. Existing law also provides, until January 1, 2020, that a writ of habeas corpus may be prosecuted on the basis that expert testimony relating to intimate partner battering and its effects was not received in evidence at the trial court proceedings relating to a prisoner's incarceration for the commission of a violent felony committed prior to August 29, 1996, if there is a reasonable probability, sufficient to undermine confidence in the judgment of conviction, that if the testimony had been admitted, the result of the proceedings would have been different. This bill would make the provisions for a writ of habeas corpus based on intimate partner battering operative indefinitely. The bill would instead provide that a writ of habeas corpus based on intimate partner battering may also be prosecuted if competent and substantial expert testimony relating to intimate partner battering and its effects was not presented to the trier of fact at the trial court proceedings, and is of such substance that, had it been presented, there is a reasonable probability, sufficient to undermine confidence in the judgment of conviction or sentence, the result of the proceedings would have been different, and that the burden of proof in this regard is on the petitioner. The bill would specify that if a petitioner presented to the trier of fact expert testimony relating to intimate partner battering and its effects that was not competent or substantial, having presented that evidence would not be a bar to granting the petition.