The Supreme Court today affirms the death sentence in People v. Parker for six brutal murders committed in Orange County almost 40 years ago by the media-nicknamed “Bedroom Basher.” All seven justices agree with the bottom line result, but two justices — although finding the error harmless as to the death penalty verdict — conclude that the defendant’s Miranda rights were violated.
Among other things, the defendant argued that the prosecution committed Batson/Wheeler error in dismissing two African-American prospective jurors. Unlike last week, however, the court finds no Batson/Wheeler error.
Justice Kathryn Werdegar writes the majority opinion. Justice Goodwin Liu writes the concurring and dissenting opinion (which Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar joins) finding Miranda error. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye signs the majority opinion, but also separately concurs to question the continued viability of a 1983 Supreme Court opinion that held the Right to Truth-in-Evidence provision of Proposition 8, a 1982 ballot initiative, curtailing application of the exclusionary rule in criminal proceedings, does not apply in cases where the tried crimes occurred before the proposition’s effective date.
The court’s opinion notes that the husband of one victim (the victim survived the defendant’s attack, but her almost full-term fetus did not) was falsely convicted of second degree murder and served 16 years in prison before being released based on DNA evidence that incriminated the defendant. In related news, the court tomorrow hears argument on a challenge to Proposition 66, which could lead to the execution, well within 16 years, of someone falsely convicted of murder.
