People v. Melendez
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first degree murder under the special circumstance of murder in the commission of robbery, attempted premeditated murder, and first degree residential robbery. The jury found true personal firearm-use allegations. The jury returned a verdict of death after a penalty trial, and the trial court imposed a judgment of death. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) substantial evidence supported the trial court’s determination that the prosecutor’s stated reasons as to the exercise of peremptory challenges against three African-American prospective jurors were genuine and race neutral; (2) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in its evidentiary rulings; and (3) there was no reason to reconsider previous holdings regarding challenges to California’s death penalty law.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.