The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog
In passing Assembly Bill 813, California has now joined 44 other states nationwide in allowing a person who has suffered a criminal conviction to challenge that conviction, even though he or she is no longer in custody.
The new statutes allows relief based on 1) a claim of actual innocence; and 2) failure to fully understand the consequences of the plea.
Although the statute applies to both citizens and non-citizens, in practice, this statute is expected to allow immigrants to seek relief for past convictions which hold devastating immigration consequences.