P. v. Boyle
The trial court found that appellant Cornelious Joseph Boyle was a sexually violent predator and ordered him to be committed indefinitely to Atascadero State Hospital. He appeals, raising due process, ex post facto, double jeopardy and equal protection challenges to his commitment pursuant to an amended version of the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA). (See Welf. & Inst. Code,[1] §§ 6600-6609.3.) Boyle also argues that the underlying petition should have been dismissed for material legal error; that his counsel was ineffective at his court trial; and that there was insufficient evidence of qualifying offenses to support his commitment.
In July 2008, we affirmed the commitment order. In August 2008, the California Supreme Court granted Boyle’s petition for review but deferred briefing until it issued its decision in People v. McKee, a case then pending on the state high court’s docket. In January 2010, the court issued its McKee decision, which remanded that matter to the trial court for a further hearing on the equal protection issue. (People v. McKee (2010) 47 Cal.4th 1172, 1208-1211 [McKee I].) In May 2010, the California Supreme Court transferred Boyle’s case back to our court with directions to vacate our July 2008 decision and reconsider the matter in light of McKee I. Mindful of the trial court hearing that had not then been held in McKee’s case, the California Supreme Court also ordered us to suspend proceedings in Boyle’s case until the trial court proceedings in the McKee case and any proceedings in which it was consolidated were final, including any appeals and matters before the California Supreme Court. As directed, we suspended proceedings in May 2010 until a final decision in McKee would trigger reconsideration of our July 2008 decision.
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