Supreme Court of California

Conviction and sentence in a death penalty case are affirmed on automatic appeal over claims of error regarding: 1) alleged improper shackling; 2) violation of defendant's right to be present; 3) the right of the victim's stepgrandson to attend the trial; 4) rulings on defense challenges for cause; 5) bailiff misconduct; 6) evidentiary rulings; 7) denial of a mistrial motion; 8) a refusal to allow certain impeachment of a witness; 9) prosecutorial misconduct; 10) instructional error; 11) insufficiency of the evidence; 12) improper admission of aggravating evidence; 13) alleged intimidation of the foreperson by a defense witness; 14) prosecution rebuttal; 15) denial of an automatic application for modification of the death verdict; 16) the constitutionality of the death penalty law and instructions; 17) international law; 18) the proportionality of the sentence; and 19) cumulative error.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/15/2008
• Published 08/15/2008

Judges

• KENNARD, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• David Joseph Macher, Murrieta, 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, Mary Jo Graves, Assistant Attorney General, Stephen G. Herndon and Alison Elle Alemán, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.