The California Supreme Court affirms appellant’s convictions for two first degree murders of his children and the death sentence. Evidence was sufficient for torture murder and premeditated murder and for torture-murder special circumstances based on prolonged physical abuse, starvation, and failure to seek care. Any confrontation clause/Sanchez error was harmless. Any error for failing to give a second degree felony murder by torture instruction was harmless. Any Griffin error was harmless. The Court rejects multiple Racial Justice Act (RJA) claims, finding that any RJA violations were harmless. [Editor’s Note: Justice Liu concurred in the judgment, including the majority’s determination that any violations of the RJA were harmless in light of the horrific circumstances of the offenses, but agreed with Justice Evans that multiple RJA violations occurred. Justice Evans dissented and would have reversed both the conviction and death sentence based on multiple violations of the RJA.]

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S103358.PDF