P. v. Lopez CA5
The trial court granted respondent Isaias Lopez’s motion to vacate a 2010 conviction on the ground that Lopez entered a no-contest plea after his counsel failed to advise him of the immigration consequences of the plea, thus depriving him of his constitutional right to effective counsel. The People filed this appeal.
The parties agree that a motion was not the proper vehicle for seeking this type of relief, and that it could be granted, if at all, only via a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Lopez maintains that we should deem the motion he made in the trial court a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, and should affirm the relief granted as if it were habeas relief. The People argue that, for procedural reasons, it would be error to analyze the trial court’s order as if it were habeas relief. They also argue that, on the record developed in the trial court, it would have been error on the merits to grant habeas relief.
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