What is the current state of California Three Strikes sentencing for a third strike offender who is convicted of possession of a firearm?

third strike offender to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life imprisonment. Under the original version of the three strikes law a recidivist with two or more prior strikes who is convicted of any new felony is subject to an indeterminate life sentence. The Act diluted the three strikes law by reserving the life sentence for cases where the current crime is a serious or violent felony or the prosecution has pled and proved an enumerated disqualifying factor. In all other cases, the recidivist will be sentenced as a second strike offender." (People v. Yearwood (2013) 213 Cal.App.4th 161, 167-168.)

In addition to reforming Three Strikes sentencing for defendants convicted after the effective date of the Act, the Act also added section 1170.126 to provide for retroactive reform of existing Three Strikes sentences imposed before the effective date of the Act. Section 1170.126 "provides a means whereby, under three specified eligibility criteria and subject to certain disqualifying exceptions or exclusions, a prisoner currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life under the pre-Proposition 36 version of the Three Strikes law for a third felony conviction that was not a serious or violent felony may be eligible for resentencing as if he or she only had one prior serious or violent felony conviction." (People v. White (2014) 223 Cal.App.4th 512, 517 (White).) However, a defendant is not eligible for resentencing under the Act if "[d]uring the commission of the current offense, the defendant used a firearm, was armed with a firearm or deadly weapon, or intended to cause great bodily injury to another person." ( 667, subd. (e)(2)(C)(iii), 1170.12, subd. (c)(2)(C)(iii).)

Thus, as we recently held, a current conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm does not automatically disqualify a defendant for resentencing under the Act. (People v. Blakely (2014) 225 Cal.App.4th 1042, 1051-1057 (Blakely).) Rather, as relevant here, eligibility for resentencing turns on whether the record of conviction establishes that the defendant used a firearm or was armed with a firearm during the commission of the current offenses. (Id. at p. 1052.) "'[A]rmed with a firearm,' as that phrase is used in the Act, [means] having a firearm available for offensive or defensive

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