{"id":946,"date":"2020-04-20T10:01:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T17:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946"},"modified":"2020-04-20T10:02:40","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T17:02:40","slug":"appeals-court-approves-lwop-gang-enhancement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946","title":{"rendered":"Appeals Court Approves LWOP Gang Enhancement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>California&#8217;s First District Court of Appeals has rejected a gang murderer&#8217;s claim that using his membership in a street gang as a special circumstance to support his life without parole sentence (LWOP) was unconstitutional.\u00a0 The San Jose Mercury News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2020\/04\/09\/ca-rules-gang-enhancements-can-carry-life-without-parole-terms\/\">reports<\/a> that the court&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courts.ca.gov\/opinions\/documents\/A153460.PDF\">unanimous<\/a> decision denied the claim, finding that the sentence enhancement for a killing that furthers the purpose of a gang does not violate the Eighth Amendment. \u00a0 The case involved the 2014 first-degree murder conviction of David Arce for the killing of rival gang member Earl Hamilton.\u00a0 After finding Arce, guilty of the murder, the jury found two special circumstances; the killing was gang related, and Arce was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.\u00a0 These findings qualified Arce for a sentence of LWOP.\u00a0\u00a0 On appeal, Arce claimed that the law allowing a special circumstance for a murder which furthered the purpose of a gang is unconstitutionally vague.\u00a0\u00a0 The court held that &#8220;It is difficult to conceive of a situation where a defendant would commit murder to further an innocent gang purpose.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 It is likely that Arce will appeal the decision.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California&#8217;s First District Court of Appeals has rejected a gang murderer&#8217;s claim that using his membership in a street gang as a special circumstance to support his life without parole sentence (LWOP) was unconstitutional.\u00a0 The San Jose Mercury News reports that the court&#8217;s unanimous decision denied the claim, finding that the sentence enhancement for a killing that furthers the purpose of a gang does not violate the Eighth Amendment. \u00a0 The case involved the 2014 first-degree murder conviction of David Arce for the killing of rival gang member Earl Hamilton.\u00a0 After finding Arce, guilty of the murder, the jury found two special circumstances; the killing was gang related, and Arce was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.\u00a0 These findings qualified Arce for a sentence of LWOP.\u00a0\u00a0 On appeal, Arce claimed that the law allowing a special circumstance for a murder which furthered the purpose of a gang is unconstitutionally vague.\u00a0\u00a0 The court held that &#8220;It is difficult to conceive of a situation where a defendant would commit murder to further an innocent gang purpose.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 It is likely that Arce will appeal the decision. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-scan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Appeals Court Approves LWOP Gang Enhancement - Crime &amp; Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Appeals Court Approves LWOP Gang Enhancement - Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"California&#8217;s First District Court of Appeals has rejected a gang murderer&#8217;s claim that using his membership in a street gang as a special circumstance to support his life without parole sentence (LWOP) was unconstitutional.\u00a0 The San Jose Mercury News reports that the court&#8217;s unanimous decision denied the claim, finding that the sentence enhancement for a killing that furthers the purpose of a gang does not violate the Eighth Amendment. \u00a0 The case involved the 2014 first-degree murder conviction of David Arce for the killing of rival gang member Earl Hamilton.\u00a0 After finding Arce, guilty of the murder, the jury found two special circumstances; the killing was gang related, and Arce was a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.\u00a0 These findings qualified Arce for a sentence of LWOP.\u00a0\u00a0 On appeal, Arce claimed that the law allowing a special circumstance for a murder which furthered the purpose of a gang is unconstitutionally vague.\u00a0\u00a0 The court held that &#8220;It is difficult to conceive of a situation where a defendant would commit murder to further an innocent gang purpose.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 It is likely that Arce will appeal the decision. &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-20T17:01:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-20T17:02:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Rushford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Rushford\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=946\",\"name\":\"Appeals Court Approves LWOP Gang Enhancement - Crime &amp; 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