In re ALICIA TAPLETT









































Filed 8/17/10; pub. order 9/10/10 (see end of opn.)









IN THE COURT OF APPEAL
OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT

(Sacramento)

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In re ALICIA TAPLETT, on Habeas Corpus.

C063460 (Super. Ct. No. 09F04735)

On the evening of January
25, 1991, 20-year-old Alicia Taplett participated in a drive-by
shooting that claimed the life of 24-year-old Dorothy Expose. Taplett pleaded no contest to second degree murder with a weapon use
enhancement and, on May 1, 1992,
was sentenced to state prison for an indeterminate term of 16 years to
life. On November 12, 2008, the Board of Parole Hearings (Board)
found Taplett suitable for parole.
However, the Governor reversed the Board's decision, concluding
Taplett's release would pose an unreasonable risk of danger to society.

Taplett filed a
petition for writ of habeas corpus in
the superior court, which was denied on July
27, 2009. She then filed a
petition for writ of habeas corpus in this court. We issued an order to show cause to Mary
Lattimore, Warden of the Central California Women's Facility, in order to
review the Governor's decision. The
warden filed a return to our order to show cause.

We conclude the
evidence presented at the Board's parole suitability hearing supports the
Governor's decision to reverse the Board's grant of parole and therefore deny
the petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Facts and
Proceedings

The following
description of the commitment offense is taken from the November 12, 2008, parole suitability hearing
and the probation report prepared in connection with Taplett's 1992 conviction,
which report was incorporated into the probation hearing.

Taplett and her
friend Cynthia Feagin participated in a drive-by shooting on the evening of January 25, 1991, that took the life
of Dorothy Expose, a 24-year-old mother of four. Taplett was 20 years old at the time.

Prior to the shooting,
Feagin had been involved in an ongoing feud with Expose over a mutual
boyfriend. Taplett too had a grudge with
Expose stemming from an incident approximately one month earlier, when Expose
fired a gun into a vehicle occupied by Taplett and her two children.

On the evening of
the shooting, Taplett was driving a car in which Feagin was the front seat
passenger and two others, including Taplett's sister, were in the back. There was a handgun in the car. The four came upon Expose and several other people
who had stopped at a liquor store.
Taplett parked at a gas station nearby and she and Feagin got out. One of them advised the other to get the gun
and said they were going to â€