The California Court of Appeals, Sixth District, has determined that Penal Code section 1473.7 does not mandate dismissal of the reinstated charges after vacatur of a plea. “Martinez’s construction of the statute, which relies almost entirely on his parsing of its legislative history, would require us to add language that does not exist, namely that a court, after granting a motion to vacate a conviction under section 1473.7, is further required to dismiss the charges underlying that (now-vacated) conviction.” In addition, a prior dismissal of the charges under Penal Code section 1203.4 does not prohibit the prosecutor from refiling the original charges after vacatur. Similarly, a pre-vacatur reduction of the charges from felonies to misdemeanors under Penal Code section 17(b) does not prevent the prosecutor from re-instating felony charges after vacatur. Finally, the court determined that double jeopardy does not prevent the re-filing of charges after vacatur because the vacatur has the effect of permitting the defendant to withdraw from the plea bargain.
The full text of Martinez v. Superior Court of Santa Clara can be found here: