Summary
In an open-court review of a death-sentence judgment, the Court identified errors concerning an alleged confession and the victim’s facial injuries. The surviving circumstantial evidence still sustained the convictions, but the errors materially affected capital sentencing. Applying prudence, it replaced death with imprisonment for the remainder of the petitioner’s life without remission.
Issues
- Whether apparent evidentiary errors warranted review of the convictions or death sentence.
Held
- Open-court rehearing of a capital review does not convert review into a fresh appeal or permit wholesale reappreciation. Additional grounds remain subject to the established requirement of apparent error causing miscarriage of justice. (¶¶ 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 10)
- The earlier judgment wrongly relied on a telephone confession contradicted in the witness’s cross-examination and rejected by the trial court. Its further assertion that the victim’s face had been crushed to prevent identification lacked medical support. Both were apparent errors. (¶¶ 14.1, 15, 16)
- After excluding those errors, motive, last-seen evidence and a separate extra-judicial confession still established guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The convictions therefore did not warrant interference. (¶¶ 14, 16, 17)
- Circumstantial evidence does not bar death categorically, but its quality bears on sentencing. There was a reasonable probability that, without the errors, the appellate Court would not have considered life imprisonment unquestionably foreclosed. Prudence required setting aside death. (¶¶ 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7, 18.8, 18.9, 19, 20, 21)
- The gravity of the multiple murders and reported unsatisfactory prison conduct made ordinary life imprisonment inadequate. The special sentencing alternative justified imprisonment for the remainder of life without remission. (¶¶ 22, 22.1, 23)
Result
The review petitions were partly allowed. The death sentence was commuted to imprisonment for the remainder of the petitioner’s life without any right to remission. The convictions under Sections 302 and 201 remained undisturbed.