"Supreme Court To Review California Death Penalty Case," is the Ap report, via CBS Sacramento.
The Supreme Court will consider reinstating the conviction and death sentence for a California man in a 29-year-old triple murder in San Diego.
The justices said Monday they will hear California’s appeal of a federal appeals court ruling that overturned the conviction and sentence for Hector Ayala.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Ayala was denied a fair trial because prosecutors excused all seven black and Hispanic jurors who might have served.
The SCOTUSblog case file for Chappell v. Ayala is at the link.
Courthouse News Service posts, "New Death-Penalty Case Picked Up by Supremes," by Barbara Leonard.
California persuaded the Supreme Court on Monday to decide whether it should retry a death-row prisoner who was convicted by a minority-free jury.
The 9th Circuit first awarded Hector Ayala such relief in 2012 and has amended that opinion to the same effect twice more in as many years.
Its latest version, published this past February, clocks in at 137 pages with the addition of a new dissent to the 9th Circuit's denial of a rehearing en banc.
Seven judges joined Judge Sandra Ikuta in saying that the 9th Circuit had done an end-run around Supreme Court precedent.
Related posts are in the Supreme Court category index.
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