Supreme Court of California

A conviction and death sentence for first degree murder is affirmed over claims of error regarding: 1) denial of motions to disqualify the trial judge and a related misconduct claim; 2) jury selection; 3) misconduct by the victim's mother; 4) admission and exclusion of evidence; 5) exclusion of expert testimony; 6) prosecutorial misconduct; 7) sufficiency of the evidence; 8) instructional issues; 9) validity of the torture-murder special circumstance; 10) denial of a motion to disclose personnel records of a police officer; 11) cross-examination of defendant; 12) cumulative error; and 13) the constitutionality of the state death penalty law.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/08/2006
• Published 05/08/2006

Judges

• CORRIGAN, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Mark Goldrosen, under appointment by the Supreme Court, San Francisco, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer, Attorney General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Ronald A. Bass, Assistant Attorney General, Ronald S. Matthias and Jeremy Friedlander, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.