People v. Aguirre

Summary

The court affirmed Aguirre’s convictions but reversed the judgment of death because retroactive changes to the gang-statute requirements were not applied at trial, and the instructional error prejudiced the gang-related conviction, enhancements, and special-circumstance finding. The court also rejected his claims concerning jury selection, accomplice corroboration, third-party culpability instructions, ineffective assistance, the continuance request, and other trial rulings addressed in the visible opinion. The opinion further concludes that the creative-expression statute does not apply retroactively, although the supplied text ends before the court’s complete analysis of that issue.