Supreme Court of California

Conviction of defendant for murder and rape of several women and other crimes, and sentence to death are affirmed where: 1) there is no prejudice in the trial court's decision not to investigate further and to retain a juror; 2) defendant's Miranda claims lack merit and the trial court did not err in admitting his statements at trial; 3) defendant failed to demonstrate prejudice with respect to instructional error as to the issues of consent; 4) defendant's claim of prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments is rejected; 5) defendant's cumulative error claim is rejected; 6) given that none of the errors affected the guilt phase, defendant fails to show, under any standard, how these same errors could have affected the penalty phase; 7) defendant's claim with respect to victim impact evidence is rejected; 8) trial court's evidentiary rulings on adjustment potential were narrow; 9) any error with respect to prosecutorial misconduct at the penalty phase was harmless; 10) defendant's claim that the special circumstance allegations as applied is unconstitutional is without merit; and 11) defendant's constitutional challenges to California's death penalty law are rejected as the statute adequately narrows the class of death-eligible offenders.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/14/2010
• Published 01/14/2010

Judges

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel