The Supreme Court today affirmed the conviction, but reversed the death sentence, in an automatic appeal. Justice Carol Corrigan’s unanimous opinion in People v. Smith holds that, “during the penalty phase, the court improperly excluded expert testimony about prison security measures for those sentenced to life without possibility of parole” and that the error was prejudicial. The exclusion of the testimony, which would have come from a former associate warden at San Quentin State Prison, “deprived defendant of the opportunity to counter aggravating evidence and argument suggesting that he would be a dangerous life prisoner.” Key to the court’s decision was that, although the excluded testimony would not have been relevant as mitigating evidence, it was important to rebut prosecution aggravating factor evidence.
Last summer, the court reversed in two other automatic appeals. Like today’s Smith decision, the opinions in those cases were unanimous and authored by Justice Corrigan.
