Can a defendant who committed a criminal offence before it was changed to a minor criminal offence receive a reduction in their sentence?

misdemeanor before it was used to enhance his or her current sentence.⁵ In any event, it is settled that "[t]he right to equal protection of the law generally does not prevent the state from setting a starting point for a change in the law. '[T]he Fourteenth Amendment does not forbid statutes and statutory changes to have a beginning and thus to discriminate between the rights of an earlier and later time.' [Citation.] The same rule applies to changes in sentencing law that benefit defendants." (People v. Lynch (2012) 209 Cal.App.4th 353, 359.)

The judgment is affirmed.

Footnotes:

^*. Before Gomes, Acting P.J., Poochigian, J. and Smith, J.

^1. All statutory references are to the Penal Code unless otherwise noted.