United States Ninth Circuit

Denial of habeas writ is reversed and remanded to issue a writ vacating the death sentence as the jury was not instructed that it must consider petitioners' principal mitigation evidence, and there was a reasonable probability that the instructional error affected the jury's decision to impose the death penalty.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/15/2007
• Decided 11/20/2003
• Published 11/20/2003

Judges

• Before:  STEPHEN REINHARDT, DIARMUID F. O'SCANNLAIN, and RICHARD A. PAEZ, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Eric Multhaup, Mill Valley, CA, and Christopher H. Wing, Sacramento, CA, for the petitioner-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorney General for the State of California, Dane R. Gillette, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Michael P. Farrell, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Eric L. Christoffersen, Deputy Attorney General, and Mark A. Johnson, Deputy Attorney General, Sacramento, CA, for the respondent-appellee.