Court Opinion

ID: 9558128
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:03:15.347663+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:20.618381
License: Public Domain

RICHARDSON, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
I concur in the majority opinion to the extent that it affirms defendant’s conviction of two counts of first degree murder, and one count of second degree attempted murder. I respectfully dissent, however, from the majority’s reversal of the penalty. For reasons stated in my concurring and dissenting opinion in People v. Ramos (1982) ante, page 553 [180 Cal.Rptr. 266, 639 P.2d 908], the trial court herein did not err in instructing the jury that the Governor is empowered to commute a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This instruction, and a similar informational instruction regarding the power of the parole authorities to grant parole, *869relate to matters of common knowledge to all jurors and, considering the entire record, could not possibly have prejudiced the defendant.
I also conclude that the prosecutor’s remarks to the jury regarding its possibly erroneous verdict acquitting defendant of rape and robbery charges constituted, at their worst, harmless error which, reasonably, could not have affected the jury’s verdict at the penalty phase.
In short, the matters complained of by the majority did not result in a miscarriage of justice. (Cal. Const., art. VI, § 13.)
I would affirm the judgment in its entirety.