The Supreme Court today affirms the death sentence in People v. Wilson for a 1997 murder. Fifteen years ago, the court reversed the penalty (but affirmed the defendant’s conviction) because the superior court during penalty-phase deliberations had erroneously dismissed the lone juror holding out for a life-imprisonment verdict. (People v. Wilson (2008) 44 Cal.4th 758.)

The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Carol Corrigan rejects the argument that a second penalty trial after the reversal was a constitutional double jeopardy violation. A retrial was allowed, the court concludes, “[b]ecause defendant’s original death judgment was reversed for legal error, and the reversal was not the equivalent of an acquittal.” The opinion holds, “As a general rule, the erroneous discharge of a capital juror is no different from any other trial error warranting reversal of judgment, and double jeopardy protections impose no obstacle to retrial.”

The court also deals yet again with an issue regarding SB 1437, which narrowed the felony-murder doctrine and allowed for possible resentencing. Even though the jury might have convicted the defendant on a felony-murder theory, the court says any error was harmless because “it would have been impossible for the jury to make the findings reflected in its verdicts without concluding, at the very least, that defendant was a major participant in the felony kidnapping who acted with reckless indifference to human life,” which satisfies the more restrictive SB 1437 standards.

And, as is typical of direct death penalty appeals, the court finds meritless a number of other arguments as well, including that defendant’s counsel had a conflict of interest because a habeas corpus petition alleged the attorney had provided ineffective assistance during the defendant’s first trial.