The California Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in the case of a death row inmate from Los Angeles that challenges the constitutionality of how the death penalty has been applied and could lead to the reversal of hundreds of death sentences.
As part of an automatic appeal for Donte McDaniel, who has been convicted and sentenced to death for two 2004 murders, the defense is asking the court whether the procedure in California capital punishment cases has allowed prosecutors to bypass state laws that requires a unanimous jury vote to decide whether the evidence supports a death sentence.
Along with co-defendant Kai Harris, McDaniel was convicted in the killing of a rival member of his gang over a drug dispute. Three women who witnessed the attack in the Los Angeles apartment also were shot; two survived, but the third was killed, The Los Angeles Times reported. Prosecutors said Harris fatally shot two people and McDaniel shot and wounded two others.
The Supreme Court justices will hear arguments from both sides in McDaniel’s case Wednesday. The court has 90 days to issue a ruling.
Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, wrote in a a court filing the court’s decision in McDaniel’s case could have “devastating effects on hundreds of hard-won judgments for horrible crimes,” The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The foundation supports the death penalty and authored a California voter-approved 2016 ballot initiative aimed at speeding up executions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in October filed an amicus brief in McDaniel’s case, arguing that the state should raise its standards for when death penalties can be issued because the current process is tainted by racism against Black people. Newsom says the court must raise the standards for unanimity and proof beyond a reasonable doubt in death penalty decisions to eradicate racial bias from the process.
Newsom issued a statewide moratorium on executions in March 2019. That order has not stopped prosecutors from proceeding with death penalty cases up until the point of execution.
It’s been 15 years since California last executed an inmate on death row. Clarence Ray Allen was executed by lethal injection on Jan. 17, 2006, at the age of 76. He was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder.
There are currently more than 700 inmates on California’s Death Row, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A recent poll showed more California voters favor abolishing the death penalty. Of the Californians surveyed, 44% said they would vote to repeal the death penalty and 35% favored allowing executions, with 21% undecided, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times released a few weeks ago.
This story was originally published June 01, 2021 2:42 PM.
