People v. Martinez, No. S074624

By FindLaw Staff on January 15, 2010 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Conviction of defendant for murder and rape of several women and other crimes, and sentence to death are affirmed where: 1) there is no prejudice in the trial court's decision not to investigate further and to retain a juror; 2) defendant's Miranda claims lack merit and the trial court did not err in admitting his statements at trial; 3) defendant failed to demonstrate prejudice with respect to instructional error as to the issues of consent; 4) defendant's claim of prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments is rejected; 5) defendant's cumulative error claim is rejected; 6) given that none of the errors affected the guilt phase, defendant fails to show, under any standard, how these same errors could have affected the penalty phase; 7) defendant's claim with respect to victim impact evidence is rejected; 8) trial court's evidentiary rulings on adjustment potential were narrow; 9) any error with respect to prosecutorial misconduct at the penalty phase was harmless; 10) defendant's claim that the special circumstance allegations as applied is unconstitutional is without merit; and 11) defendant's constitutional challenges to California's death penalty law are rejected as the statute adequately narrows the class of death-eligible offenders.     

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Appellate Information

Filed January 14, 2010

Judges

Opinion by Judge Moreno

Counsel
For Appellant:   Christopher Johns

For Appellee:   Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Robert R. Anderson, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Pamela C. Hamanaka, Assistant Attorney General, John R. Gorey and Joseph P. Lee, Deputy Attorneys General,

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