California Court of Appeal

Judgment of conviction of first degree murder with a special circumstance finding of murder during the commission of attempted robbery, is affirmed, where: 1) the felony-murder special circumstance enhancement, which imposes a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, is not unconstitutionally vague; and 2) there was no error admitting into evidence on the issue of defendant's rationality, statements defendant made to the police after he asserted his Miranda rights, where the conversations generated by the guarding officers fall within permissible casual conversation normally attendant to a custody situation, and they did not constitute interrogation designed to elicit incriminating responses that triggers application of the prophylactic Miranda rule.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/05/2013
• Published 03/05/2013

Judges

• HALLER

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel