California Supreme Court
People v. Montes
May 21, 2014
Summary
The court upheld the murder convictions, special-circumstance findings, and death sentence while reversing the carjacking conviction and staying the sentence on the kidnapping-during-carjacking conviction. It rejected challenges concerning discriminatory prosecution discovery, police-record disclosure, severance, preservation of a blood sample, courtroom restraints, jury selection, gang evidence, expert disclosure and qualifications, and autopsy photographs. The opinion concluded that any assumed discovery error concerning a penalty-phase letter was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.