The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Ramon Sandoval, Jr., Defendant and Appellant — Corrigan, J., Dissenting

Summary

Justice Corrigan dissented from the majority's reversal of the lying-in-wait special-circumstance finding. She reasoned that the prosecution's circumstantial evidence, principally Sergeant Valdemar's testimony, supported only an inference that defendant watched and waited for an opportunity to shoot, while defendant's contrary account was direct evidence rather than a competing inference from the circumstantial evidence. Justice Chin, concurring in part and dissenting in part, likewise would not vacate the special circumstance and additionally disagreed with the majority's treatment of penalty-phase argument and harmless-error review.