Supreme Court of California

Conviction for first and second degree murders and sentence to death is affirmed where: 1) trial court's voir dire on the death penalty was adequate and did not violate his due process rights, and the warrantless entries into defendant's house were justified by exigent circumstances; 2) witness's testimony describing defendant's nonverbal conduct was properly admitted, and the court did not err in admitting victims' photographs and autopsy photographs; 3) the court did not err in failing to give the jury an instruction on voluntary manslaughter and in instructing the jury on CALJIC No. 2.06; 4) any conceivable error in the substitution of judges upon the trial judge's temporary absence was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt; 5) the death sentence is not authorized for second degree murder, and thus the judgment must be modified to reflect the appropriate sentence; 6) the court properly refused to give a lingering doubt instruction and did not instruct the jury with an incorrect version of CALJIC No. 8.85 or 8.88; and 7) California's death penalty statute is not unconstitutional.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/06/2009
• Published 07/06/2009

Judges

• BAXTER, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Michael J. Hersek, State Public Defender, under appointment by the Supreme Court, and Kent Barkhurst, Deputy State Public Defender, 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 D. Wilkens, Maxine P. Cutler and Adrianne S. Denault, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.