Opinion
S216626
02-14-2018
TOWNSEL (ANTHONY LETRICE) ON H.C.
Order to show cause issued, returnable in Superior Court (Atkins claim)
This petition for writ of habeas corpus was filed in this court on February 20, 2014, before the effective date of Proposition 66, the “Death Penalty Reform and Savings Act of 2016.” (See Briggs v. Brown et al. (2017) 3 Cal.5th 808, 862, rehg. den. Oct. 25, 2017.) Under section 1509, subdivision (g) of the Penal Code, the court exercises its authority to retain this petition and decide it.
The Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is ordered to show cause in the Madera County Superior Court, when the matter is placed on calendar, why petitioner Anthony Letrice Townsel's death sentence should not be vacated and petitioner sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole on the ground that he is intellectually disabled within the meaning of Atkins v. Virginia (2002) 536 U.S. 304, as alleged in Claim M of the petition for writ of habeas corpus. (See In re Hawthorne (2005) 35 Cal.4th 40.) The return is to be filed on or before March 16, 2018.
All other claims are denied on the merits. Claim L, to the extent it alleges the trial court violated petitioner's rights in ordering him shackled, is also procedurally barred on the ground it could have been, but was not, raised on appeal. (In re Dixon (1953) 41 Cal.2d 756, 759.)
Votes: Cantil-Sakauye, C. J., Chin, Corrigan, Liu, Cuéllar, and Kruger, JJ.