People v. Seumanu
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of first degree murder. Defendant was sentenced to death for the murder. While this appeal was pending, the United States District Court for the Central District of California issued its opinion in Jones v. Chappell, which held that systemic delays in implementing the California death penalty law rendered it unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. The Supreme Court affirmed the guilt and penalty phase judgments in their entirety, holding (1) any evidentiary errors did not require reversal under either state law or federal law; (2) Defendant’s claim of judicial misconduct was forfeited for appeal; (3) certain of Defendant’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct during the guilt phase were forfeited, other prosecutorial misconduct claims were without merit, and while the prosecutor committed misconduct in other instances, the misconduct was harmless; (4) the jury instructions were not in error; (5) no prejudicial misconduct occurred during the penalty phase; (6) a Jones claim has not been proved here; and (7) Defendant’s constitutional challenges to California’s death penalty statute failed.
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