Filed 11/14/22 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT DIVISION TWO THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, E079269 v. (Super.Ct.No. RIF112804) RAYMOND GRIFFIN, OPINION Defendant and Appellant. APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Louis R. Hanoian (retired judge of the San Diego Super. Ct. assigned by the Chief Justice pursuant to art. VI, § 6 of the Cal. Const.). Affirmed. Eric R. Larson, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent. 1 Eight years after defendant and appellant Raymond Griffin was convicted of two counts of murder, he petitioned the trial court for resentencing pursuant to Penal Code section 1172.6.1 That court summarily denied his petition, and defendant appealed. Defendant’s appointed appellate counsel filed an opening brief that does not raise any issues. Therein, counsel acknowledges this is not defendant’s first appeal of right so we are not required to conduct an independent review of the record to determine if it contains any arguable issues, but he requests we exercise our discretion to do so. We granted that request and found no issue. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s denial of defendant’s petition. BACKGROUND In 2014, a jury found defendant guilty of various offenses, including two counts of first-degree murder (§ 187, subd. (a)) with gang and multiple-murder special circumstances (§ 190.2, subds. (a)(3), (a)(22)), and with enhancements for causing death by personally and intentionally discharging a firearm (§ 12022.53(d)). The trial court sentenced defendant to four consecutive life terms (two without possibility of parole and two with 25-year minimum parole periods) plus seven years. In his appeal from the judgment, defendant raised several issues, including a claim that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s finding that he was the shooter. We affirmed. (People v. Griffin (July 19, 2016, E062831) [nonpub. opn.].) 1 Section 1170.95 was renumbered as section 1172.6 without change in the text, effective June 30, 2022 (Stats. 2022, ch. 58, § 10). For the sake of simplicity, we refer to the section by its new numbering. All further statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 In 2018, the Legislature enacted Senate Bill 1437, which amended sections 188 and 189 to eliminate criminal liability for murder under the natural and probable consequences doctrine and to limit application of the felony murder rule to those persons who were either the actual killer, or acted with the intent to kill, or was a major participant in the underlying felony who acted with reckless indifference to human life. (Stats. 2018, ch. 1015, § 1, subd. (f), eff. Jan. 1, 2019.) The Legislature also added section 1172.6, which established the procedure for defendants convicted of murder prior to the amendments to petition the trial court to vacate their sentence and to be resentenced if they met the following conditions: (i) they were charged in a manner that allowed the People to proceed under a theory of felony murder or murder …
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