A California court has ruled that Proposition 47 makes stealing certain cars only a misdemeanor offense, making speeding tickets more costly than theft!
A person convicted of a felony for stealing a car may have that conviction reduced to a misdemeanor if the vehicle was worth no more than $950, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday.
The decision came as an interpretation of California’s voter-approved Proposition 47, which reduced any number of drug and theft related felonies to misdemeanors.
The decision overturned lower court rulings.
The LA Times explains:
Two years before the measure’s passage, Timothy Wayne Page was convicted of violating a law that makes taking or driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent a felony.
The state’s highest court, in a decision written by Justice Leondra R. Kruger, said Proposition 47 allows Page to have his felony vehicle conviction reduced to a misdemeanor if he
