Supreme Court of California

A conviction and death sentence for the murder of defendant's mother are affirmed on automatic appeal over claims of error regarding: 1) a failure to grant a motion to relieve defendant's attorney and appoint new counsel; 2) admonishments to jurors during voir dire; 3) the excusal of a juror for cause; 4) cumulative error; 5) exclusion of a codefendant's prior sex crimes; 6) sufficiency of the evidence; 7) alleged inconsistent verdicts; 8) instructional errors; 9) aggravating evidence; 10) mitigating evidence; 11) a failure to instruct the jury on the meaning of life without the possibility of parole; 12) double counting felonies; 13) defendant's motion for modification; 14) a failure to instruct on reasonable doubt; 15) a failure to instruct on pity as a mitigating circumstance; 16) constitutional challenges to California's death penalty law; 17) a challenge to the method of execution; 18) the cumulative effect of penalty phase errors; and 19) an attempted reservation of rights.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/28/2007
• Published 06/28/2007

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Russell S. Babcock, San Diego, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, Sharlene A. Honnaka and David E. Madeo, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.