While there are many others that deserve an honorable mention, included here are the most important, interesting, or representative California bills passed in 2011, that affect criminal law and procedure. These new laws are effective and operative on January 1, 2012.
• An amnesty program for infraction fines and bail (50% off) established in 2010 becomes operative Jan. 1, 2012 to Jul. 1, 2012. An amendment this year permits counties and the local court to agree to extend this to fines and bail for misdemeanor VC violations and related failures to appear or pay.
• Realignment, which became effective on October 1, 2011, is the major new law this year. Its most important feature is that the sentence for hundreds of low-level felonies have been realigned from state prison to county jail.
• The Deadly weapons statutes were rearranged into a new Part 6 of the Penal Code, Sections 16000. Enacted 2010, Effective Jan. 1, 2012.
• The jury must now be admonished not to “conduct research, disseminate information,” about the case until the case is over; the court must “clearly explain” that these prohibitions apply “to all forms of electronic and wireless communication.” Violation of this admonishment is a misdemeanor contempt of court.
• A fourth DUI in 10 years may result in a ten–year driver’s license revocation; starting Jan. 1, 2012.
• SB 40, the “Cunningham fix”, sunset extended to Jan. 1, 2014. When the U.S. Supreme Ct. held in Cunningham v. California (2007) that California’s Determinate Sentencing Law was unconstitutional because it made the presumptive term the middle term, but permitted the court to give the aggravated term based on facts not admitted by the defendant, nor constituting a prior conviction, nor found by the jury. The legislature quickly fixed that by making the middle term no longer the presumptive term. That was a temporary fix, but its sunset date has been extended to January 1, 2014.
• The Revised Rules of Professional Conduct adopted by the State Bar in 2010 are still not operative because they still have not been fully submitted to the California Supreme Court for approval. The bar has announced plans to submit the new rules soon.
• Preservation of assets provisions, such as forfeitures, are provided for very large multiple frauds, or large takings in elder abuse cases.
