The Supreme Court today reverses the death sentence (but not the conviction) in People v. Leon because of the improper exclusion of three prospective jurors. This is not a Batson, racially-motivated-peremptory-challenge case. Rather, the trial court error was in improperly granting challenges for cause based on the prospective jurors’ death penalty views. The Supreme Court concludes, “Written and oral voir dire responses of the three excused panelists did not give the court sufficient information to conclude they were incapable of performing their duties as capital jurors.”
Like three other recent death penalty reversals, Leon is a unanimous decision written by Justice Carol Corrigan. Well, it’s almost unanimous — Justice Goodwin Liu, joined by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, writes a very brief concurring opinion distancing himself from the court’s rejection of two other of the defendant’s jury selection arguments. There was another death penalty reversal, in an opinion written by Justice Ming Chin, just last month.