Supreme Court of California

Defendant's convictions and capital sentence for first degree murder of her husband under the special circumstances of murder by administering poison and murder for financial gain, and of one count of attempting to dissuade a witness, are affirmed, where: 1) there is no basis to reverse the judgment due to defendant's conditions of confinement; 2) defendant received a full opportunity to defend herself; 3) there was no error in the discharge of defense counsel and appointment of new counsel; 4) there was no reason to conduct competency hearings; 5) there was no error in the guilt phase and the only presumed error with the toxicology expert was harmless; 6) there was no error in admitting evidence in the penalty phase that defendant previously murdered her infant daughter; and 7) defendant's multiple remaining claims fail.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/20/2014
• Published 02/20/2014

Judges

• CHIN

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel