The Supreme Court today affirms the death sentence in People v. Turner for the rapes and murders of 10 women over a 12-year period beginning in 1987. The unanimous opinion by Justice Carol Corrigan does reverse the defendant’s conviction for second-degree murder of a viable fetus, but the court concludes the reversal is of no consequence to the death penalty.
As is typical in death penalty appeals, the court is required to address, and it rejects, numerous arguments. Among the defendant’s unsuccessful contentions is a two-pronged attack on DNA evidence, which the opinion discusses at length. The court also rejects a challenge to the superior court’s dismissal of two prospective jurors based on their views against the death penalty.
The fetal-murder conviction is reversed because of a Sanchez violation (see here), in this case improper expert hearsay testimony about an autopsy report that was not admitted into evidence.
As it has in recent death penalty opinions, including two last week (here and here), the court summarily dismissed a challenge to the rule that juries are not required to make unanimous findings beyond a reasonable doubt on aggravating factors, despite the court’s signaling in the pending McDaniel appeal that it will reconsider the rule. (See here and, also, here.)