The Supreme Court today affirms the death penalty in People v. Pearson for a 1998 murder in Long Beach. The capital judgment was imposed after a second penalty phase trial occasioned by the court’s partial reversal because of an improperly excused prospective juror (People v. Pearson (2012) 53 Cal.4th 306).
The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Corrigan rejects numerous arguments for reversal, including that his original trial counsel should not have represented him at the retrial because a pending habeas corpus petition alleged counsel had been ineffective at the first trial. The defendant also unsuccessfully claimed prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of defense counsel.
Additionally, the court finds meritless a challenge to his conviction at the first trial based on a retroactive application of SB 1437, landmark 2018 legislation that limited criminal liability for felony murder and eliminated it for murder under the natural-and-probable-consequences doctrine. The application of SB 1437 has occupied, and continues to occupy, a substantial portion of the court’s docket. (See, e.g., recently here, here, and here.)
