The Supreme Court today affirms the death penalty in People v. Perez for one of three men involved in a 1998 home invasion murder. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar rejects numerous claims of prejudicial error, including one that the defendant was unfairly up against the “’intense pro-government patriotic fervor'” existing when his trial started the day after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The court had asked for supplemental briefing regarding an expert’s reliance on hearsay and it directed the parties’ attention to the People v. Sanchez (2016) 63 Cal. 4th 665 case (see here and here) and eight decisions from other states. The court concludes that statements in an autopsy report were hearsay. However, it avoids the additional question whether, even if admissible under a hearsay exception, the statements were testimonial hearsay under the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause, because, the court finds, any constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
