The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Christopher James Sattiewhite, Defendant and Appellant

Summary

The California Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of death in its entirety after rejecting challenges to defendant's competency proceedings, jury selection, guilt-phase instructions and evidence, penalty-phase procedures, posttrial rulings, and the constitutionality of California's death-penalty scheme. The court held that the record did not establish substantial evidence of incompetence, did not support an inference of race discrimination in the prosecutor's peremptory strike, and disclosed no reversible evidentiary, instructional, prosecutorial, or sentencing error. Justice Liu, concurring, agreed with the result but would have analyzed the Batson claim at the third stage because the prosecutor voluntarily stated the reasons for the strike.