The Supreme Court today unanimously affirms another death sentence. The court’s opinion in People v. O’Malley is authored by Justice Leondra Kruger.
Among other things, the court rejects the defendant’s Batson/Wheeler argument that the prosecution racially discriminated against two potential jurors when he exercised peremptory challenges against them. The Batson/Wheeler issue has been a point of dispute among the justices in other cases, and could be again in future ones, but not this time.
The court also finds without merit the contention that it was error to refuse defense counsel’s request to withdraw based on an alleged threat made by defendant’s wife against counsel’s wife.
