California Supreme Court Hears Argument Challenging Death Penalty Law

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The California Supreme Court heard oral argument today in People v. McDaniel.  Donte McDaniel was convicted in 2009 of two brutal murders and attempted murder on two others.  In 2004, McDaniel and his accomplice entered a woman’s Los Angeles apartment looking for a man who had stolen drugs from another member of the gang he belongs to, the Bounty Hunter Bloods (BHB). McDaniel began firing as he walked in the door, shooting and killing the woman, then shooting the man he was looking for  so may times in the head that his face collapsed.  He shot two other women in the apartment, not involved in the drug dispute, critically injuring them both and leaving them permanently disabled.

McDaniel has asked the court to rule that the state’s death penalty law has not been properly enforced since it was enacted 43 years ago.  He insists that jurors should have been required to find every aggravating factor, such as killing multiple victims, true “beyond a reasonable doubt” and find that a death sentence is appropriate “beyond a reasonable doubt.”   This article in The Sacramento Bee quotes CJLF Legal Director, Kent Scheidegger noting that if the court accepts the murderer’s argument, “[it could have] devastating effects on hard-won judgements for horrible crimes.” Mr. Scheidegger argues in his brief:

Nothing in California legal history, English Common Law, or the 1978 death penalty ballot measure (adopted by 71% of voters), suggest that jurors are required to find the aggravating factors in a murder case or the appropriateness of a death sentence “beyond a reasonable doubt”. McDaniel’s claimed requirement would toss out precedents that go back over 40 years for the aggravating circumstances and decades longer for penalty verdict…

Nobody knows how a jury would go about sentencing a murderer to death beyond a reasonable doubt, which has always been the standard for determining guilt.  The CJLF brief in this case is available here.  The CA Supreme Court has 90 days from the day of argument to issue a ruling.