The defendant in People v. Gomez was sentenced to death for two murders and to life without parole for two other murders. He was also convicted of robbery and kidnapping. Today, the Supreme Court affirms. The unanimous opinion by Justice Goodwin Liu rejects many appellate arguments, although it does hold that “the trial court committed a number of harmless errors.”
The court finds the superior court violated the defendant’s due process rights in instructing the jury that it could consider his brief refusal to appear in court during the trial as consciousness of his guilt. The Supreme Court concludes, however, that the error “did not affect the jury’s verdicts in this case.” The court also finds to be harmless error the introduction of some expert testimony on the Mexican Mafia, a kidnapping jury instruction, and the admission of evidence regarding the Mexican-American ethnicities of two officers whom defendant attacked in jail.
