In Re Baert

Opinion

ARABIAN, J.

Introduction

“No one can be criminally punished in this country, except according to a law prescribed for his government by the sovereign authority before the imputed offense was committed, and which existed as a law at the time.” (Kring v. Missouri (1882) 107 U.S. 221, 235 [27 L.Ed. 506, 511, 2 S.Ct. 443].) Guided by this fundamental principle of due process, we confront the question, not yet addressed in the wake of People v. Anderson (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1104 [240 Cal.Rptr. 585, 742 P.2d 1306], whether its holding eliminating intent to kill as an element of the felony-murder…