The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Richard Christopher Tully, Defendant and Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed defendant's convictions and death judgment after rejecting his challenges to the admission of fingerprint and statement evidence, the conduct of the traffic stop and searches, the voluntariness of his interrogations, and the excusal of prospective jurors opposed to capital punishment. It held that defendant's consent search was not tainted by an unlawful detention or Miranda violation, that his March 7 statements were voluntary and that the fingerprint evidence was not obtained through illegal police conduct, and that his later statements were neither obtained after an unequivocal invocation nor involuntary. The court also upheld the trial court's rulings concerning death-qualification and witness exclusion. Justice Liu, concurring, additionally agreed that the prosecutor's use of religious authority was improper.