People v. McDowell
Annotate this CaseIn 1984 a jury convicted Defendant of first degree murder, attempted murder, attempted rape, and burglary. After a penalty trial, the jury set the penalty at death. The Supreme Court affirmed. In 1997, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, while affirming the federal district court's denial of Defendant's petition for writ of habeas corpus as to the guilt phase, reversed its denial of the writ as to the death sentence. After the first retrial of the penalty phase resulted in a mistrial, a second penalty retrial was held, in which the jury returned a verdict of death. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the second penalty retrial was constitutional; (2) the trial court did not err by excusing prospective jurors; (3) the court did not erroneously admit victim impact evidence and giving related instructions; (4) the court did not err in excluding proffered defense expert opinion testimony or mitigating evidence; (5) there was no prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct; and (6) California's death penalty law and related standard jury instructions were constitutional and lawful.
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