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Justices weaken hope for inmates State high court says prison sentences put in jeopardy by a federal ruling can be upheld

The California Supreme Court on Thursday salvaged thousands of tough criminal sentences that had been put in question by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state's sentencing law was unconstitutional. Although the state high court decided that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of inmates may have their sentences reconsidered, it also said trial courts were free to uphold them under a new, stopgap sentencing law passed in March to resolve the constitutional flaws. The state court's action, which came in two separate decisions, removed a cloud over thousands of criminal sentences that had been in doubt since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in January that California's law gave judges too much power to add extra years to a prison sentence.

Source: http://www.lawyers.com