Supreme Court of California

In a death penalty case, the conviction and sentence is affirmed on automatic appeal over claims of error regarding: 1) a failure to change the venue; 2) expert opinion evidence of an FBI agent; 3) discovery; 4) the admissibility of evidence of defendant's statements; 5) exclusion of a victim's statements concerning conflict with her boyfriend; 6) a witness's testimony; 7) evidence of defense counsel's participation in the lineup; 8) admissibility of knives; 9) sufficiency of the evidence; 10) a failure to instruct on second degree murder; 11) testimony of a witness over a claim that the evidence was more prejudicial than probative and should be excluded; 12) exclusion of third party culpability evidence; 13) prosecutorial misconduct; 14) closing the proceedings during certain testimony; 15) cumulative prejudice; 16) a motion for a separate penalty phase jury; 17) a Pitchess motion; 18) victim-impact evidence; 19) instruction on, and the jury's consideration of, burglaries not directly related to the murders; 20) a failure to exclude evidence of defendant's possession of a weapon while he was in custody; 21) challenges to California's death penalty scheme; and 22) cumulative prejudice.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/30/2007
• Published 04/30/2007

Judges

• GEORGE, C.J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Mark E. Cutler, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Cool, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, William M. Wood, John T. Swan and Quisteen S. Shum, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.