The Supreme Court today affirms the death sentence in People v. Krebs for the 20-year-old kidnappings, rapes, and murders of two San Luis Obispo college students. The court’s 126-page unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye rejects all of defendant’s many arguments, including a Batson/Wheeler challenge to the prosecution’s removal of Catholic prospective jurors and the Miranda claim that defendant’s confession to the crimes should have been excluded from evidence.
The court does find the superior court incorrectly ordered the defendant to be examined by a prosecution-retained psychological expert, but concludes the error was harmless.
The court also holds “the Governor’s moratorium on the death penalty does not compel the court to reexamine” earlier rulings that delay in executing a condemned inmate doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment and that the rarity of executions doesn’t result in arbitrary results. (Link added.)
