Supreme Court affirms death penalty judgment

The Supreme Court this morning affirmed the judgment of death in People v. Kopatz.  The unanimous opinion by Justice Ming Chin rejects (1) the defendant’s claim of a Miranda violation, (2) his challenge to the admission of a deceased witness’s prior consistent statement, (3) his argument that an officer’s testimony about the officer’s conversation with someone else violated the defendant’s confrontation right, (4) the contention that victim impact evidence was prejudicially excessive, (5) the defendant’s assertion that there should have been separate penalty verdicts as to each of the two victims, and (6) other routinely rejected arguments that attack jury instructions and the death penalty.