Supreme Court of California

Defendant's judgement of death for killing a Los Angeles police officer is reversed and remanded where the trial court prejudicially erred at a penalty retrial by: 1) barring defendant from offering significant mitigating evidence concerning the circumstances of the murder, in particular, evidence that another individual fired all of the shots; and 2) instructing the jury not only that a prior jury had found defendant guilty of murdering the officer by personal use of a firearm, but also that it had been "conclusively proved by the jury in the first case that this defendant did, in fact, shoot and kill Officer Verna" and that the jury was to "disregard any statements ... and ... any evidence to the contrary during the trial."

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/20/2008
• Published 03/20/2008

Judges

• BAXTER, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Therene Powell, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Sunnyvale;  Lynn S. Coffin and Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defenders, 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 Lance E. Winters, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.