The Supreme Court today affirms the death penalty in People v. Mitchell. The defendant was convicted of mass shootings at a car dealership and an apartment complex on the same summer 2005 day.
Other than raising challenges to California’s death penalty that the court has repeatedly rejected before, the defendant’s appellate arguments are all claims of instructional error. The court’s unanimous opinion by Justice Goodwin Liu finds the failure to give one instruction was error, albeit harmless, and concludes there was no merit in any of the other claims.