Supreme Court of California

A decision upholding defendant's conviction for first degree murder is affirmed where: 1) the justification for a delay in charging defendant with the 1976 crime (he was not charged until further investigation, specifically DNA testing in 2002, provided strong new evidence of his guilt) outweighed the prejudice defendant suffered from the delay; 2) thus, the delay did not his rights to a fair trial and due process; and 3) the jury properly heard evidence that it was virtually impossible that anyone other than defendant could have left the evidence found at the crime scene.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/16/2008
• Published 06/16/2008

Judges

• CHIN, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Cara DeVito, under appointment by the Supreme Court, West Hills, for Defendant and Appellant., John T. Philipsborn and Linda F. Robertson, San Francisco, for California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and California Public Defenders' Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant., Jennifer Friedman, Public Defender (Los Angeles);  and Edward J. Ungvarsky for Los Angeles Public Defender and Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson and Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Mary Jo Graves and Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorneys General, J. Robert Jibson, Janet E. Neeley, Enid A. Camps and Judy Kaida, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent., Bonnie M. Dumanis, District Attorney (San Diego), Catherine Stephenson and James E. Atkins, Deputy District Attorneys, for Office of the District Attorney of San Diego County as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Respondent.