P. v. Joseph CA2/5
A jury found defendant and appellant Jordan Joseph (defendant) guilty of second degree murder for shooting Kody Cook (Cook) as Cook sat in his car. Defendant testified he shot Cook because Cook was reaching for a gun, but no weapon was recovered from Cook’s car. Defendant was 17 years old when he shot Cook, and at a fitness hearing held under then governing law prior to changes made by Proposition 57, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016 (the Act), the juvenile court determined defendant was not fit for juvenile court proceedings and permitted prosecutors to file charges in a court of criminal jurisdiction. We consider whether the changes worked by the Act require a new fitness hearing for defendant because his conviction is not yet final. We also consider whether the trial court should have given defendant’s proposed jury instruction on imperfect self-defense and whether reversal is warranted due to asserted prosecutorial misconduct.
Comments on P. v. Joseph CA2/5