Supreme Court of California

In an automatic appeal in a death penalty case, the conviction and death sentence are affirmed over claims of error regarding: 1) a failure to record portions of grand jury proceedings; 2) prosecutorial misconduct; 3) jury instructions regarding felony murder; 4) cumulative error; 5) denial of a request to empanel a separate jury for the penalty phase; 6) exclusion of defendant's execution-impact evidence; 7) other penalty phase evidentiary rulings; 8) prosecutorial misconduct during cross-examination and closing argument; 9) the cumulative effect of prosecutorial misconduct; 10) juror misconduct issues; 11) denial of an application to modify the penalty verdict; 12) an equal protection challenge to imposition of the death penalty; 13) delay in appointment of appellate counsel; 14) Eighth Amendment challenge to pre-execution delay; and 15) other Constitutional challenges to the death penalty statute and instructions.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/29/2009
• Published 01/29/2009

Judges

• MORENO, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Tamara P. Holland, under appointment by the Supreme Court, Fairfax, for Defendant and Appellant., Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Gary W. Schons, Assistant Attorney General, Holly Wilkens and Annie Featherman Fraser, Deputy Attorney General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.