Supreme Court of California

In a death penalty case, defendant's conviction and noncapital sentences are affirmed. However, one multiple-murder special-circumstance finding is vacated and the judgment as to the death sentence is reversed as the trial court had no discretion to deny defendant's timely motion for self-representation as the basis for the denial, defendant's supposed mental incapacity not amounting to incompetency to stand trial, was invalid.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/30/2007
• Published 08/30/2007

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Lisa M. Romo, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Berkeley, 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, John R. Gorey, Lawrence M. Daniels and Steven D. Matthews, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.