Does a defendant have a constitutional right to view the scene of the crime scene during the penalty phase of his murder trial?

Defendant again requested that the second penalty-phase jury be permitted to view the scene of the murders at night; the trial court denied his request. Defendant claims the court's denial violated his state law rights, as well as his Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution, because a view of the scene would have enabled defendant to rebut aggravating evidence and to establish lingering doubt. As the People cogently explain, a "capital defendant has no federal constitutional right to have the jury consider lingering doubt in choosing the appropriate penalty." (People v. Stitely (2005) 35 Cal.4th 514, 566.) In People v. Stitely, we explained that "[e]vidence that is inadmissible to raise reasonable doubt at the guilt phase is inadmissible to raise lingering doubt at the penalty phase." (Ibid.) For the same reasons we rejected defendant's guilt phase argument, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant's penalty phase motion to have the jury view

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