Is a jury's opinion that the death penalty should be imposed automatically on a defendant who has committed other crimes such as murder not a murder?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Cash, 122 Cal.Rptr.2d 545, 28 Cal.4th 703, 50 P.3d 332 (Cal. 2002):

Because the trial court's error makes it impossible for us to determine from the record whether any of the individuals who were ultimately seated as jurors held the disqualifying view that the death penalty should be imposed invariably and automatically on any defendant who had committed one or more murders other than the murder charged in this case, it cannot be dismissed as harmless. Thus, we must reverse defendant's judgment of death. (Morgan v. Illinois, supra, 504 U.S. at p. 739, 112 S.Ct. 2222.)

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