People v. Nelson

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder. The jury also found true the special circumstance allegations that Defendant committed multiple murders and that the murders were committed while lying in wait. The jury was unable to reach a penalty verdict, and a second penalty phase was held. The jury returned a verdict of death, and the trial court entered a judgment of death. The Supreme Court (1) reversed the lying-in-wait special-circumstance, holding that the evidence was insufficient to support the inference that Defendant arrived at the murder scene before the victims arrived; (2) reversed the penalty judgment and remanded for retrial of the penalty phase, holding that the trial court’s investigation into the penalty phase retrial jury’s announce deadlock was so intrusive that it prejudicially invaded the deliberations and created a coercive effect on those deliberations; and (3) otherwise affirmed the convictions. View "People v. Nelson" on Justia Law