08 January 2018 :

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted a new trial to California death-row prisoner Francis Hernandez. In a 2-1 opinion, the Court held that Hernandez's trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate and present a diminished mental capacity defense based on mental impairment. Hernandez was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County on July 12, 1983 for the forcible rape, sodomy and murder of two young women, Edna Bristol and Kathleen Ryan, in early 1981.

27 December 2017 :

The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has overturned the 1991 death sentence imposed on Estonian national Tauno Waidla for the July 12, 1988 murder of Viivi Piirisild. The court upheld Waidla's conviction, but granted him a new penalty hearing, finding his lawyer ineffective for failing to investigate and present mitigating evidence in the penalty phase of his case. In 2005 (see March 3, 2005) the California Supreme Court had overturned the death sentence imposed on Waidla's co-defendant, fellow Estonian Peeter (also Peter) Sakarias because prosecutors had made conflicting claims about the roles each of the men were accused of playing in the murder. The victim was an Estonian-American woman who helped the two after they fled to the United States via West Berlin after defecting from a Soviet army unit in then East Germany in 1987.

18 December 2017 :

A Los Angeles County jury sentenced Isauro Aguirre, 37, Ispanic, to death. The man is convicted of fatally torturing his girlfriend's young son, 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez. When paramedics arrived at the boy's home on May 22, 2013, Gabriel was unconscious and had a cracked skull, broken ribs, burned and bruised skin, missing teeth and BB pellets lodged in his groin. He died 2 days later after being removed from life support. Gabriel's death led as well to criminal charges against L.A. County social workers, who left the boy in the home with his mom and her boyfriend despite 6 investigations into abuse allegations involving his mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, who is also charged with murder. At a court hearing for the social workers earlier in the year, a judge said that their actions amounted to criminal negligence, adding that in the months before the boy's death "red flags were everywhere." Sheriff's deputies also visited the home multiple times in the months before the killing and prosecutors noted in court papers that some of the deputies were later disciplined in connection with Gabriel's death. Aguirre is scheduled to be sentenced on March 8.

11 December 2017 :

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher sentenced Lorraine Hunter, 62, Black, to death. Judge Fisher upheld a jury’s recommendation. A Riverside jury in August convicted Hunter of murdering her 56-year-old husband Albert Thomas on Nov. 3, 2009 to collect more than $1 million in life insurance proceeds, and on SEPTEMBER 14, 2017 (see) recommended that she receive capital punishment. The prosecution's key witness was Hunter's now-23-year-old daughter, Briuana Lashanae Hunter, who confessed to plotting with her mother to kill Thomas. Briuana Hunter, 15 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty last year to 3 counts of attempted murder and 1 count of voluntary manslaughter. She's slated to be sentenced on Dec. 13 to 18 years, 9 months in state prison. The prosecutor argued to jurors that Lorraine Hunter had masterminded, and probably carried out, the slaying of her previous husband, Allen Brown, who was gunned down in what appeared to be a random act of violence in Inglewood in 1996. The circumstances were eerily similar to Thomas' death, with Brown shot in the back. No charges were ever filed in the case, which remains officially unsolved.

04 December 2017 :

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Stephen Gallon imposed a death sentence on Raymond Alex Barrera, 27, Hispanic, a gang member who once was a police informant before he fatally shot 3 men and tried to kill another because of their affiliations. Barrera had been convicted in September of 3 murders that occurred during the early summer of 2013. On October 27, 2017 the same Riverside County jury that found Barrera guilty of the offenses recommended that he receive capital punishment, and Judge Gallon today followed that recommendation. The defendant, an admitted member of San Ja, the San Jacinto Valley's oldest street gang, was with his girlfriend, now-24-year-old Tawpash Paillia Durnin, during the killings. Durnin pleaded guilty last year to 3 counts of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced on Nov. 3 to 26 years in state prison. The defendant's 1st victim was Juan "Spooks" Perez, on the night of June 27, 2013. The defendant's next target was a supposed police informant, Jose "Flaco" Venegas, gunned down on June 30, 2013. The 3rd and final murder victim was Ruben "Toker" Zavala, a member of "Hemet 13," on July 8, 2013.

21 November 2017 :

Charles Manson has died. He was 83 years old. Manson was at the center of one of the most notorious mass murders in U.S. History. Manson was put on trial in 1970 and convicted in 1971 for orchestrating the murders of nine people at the hands of his cult followers, the “Manson Family.” Manson had ordered the killings, but didn't participate. Prosecutors said that Manson wanted to start a race war and had hoped the Black Panthers would be blamed for the deaths. His trial ended in a death sentence, but California was embroiled in a fight over the death penalty at the time. That fight ended with the State Supreme Court abolishing execution in 1972, a ruling which only lasted a few months before voters reinstated the penalty, but long enough for Manson to be granted a life sentence instead. Manson’s sentence was never reconsidered after California reinstated capital punishment, and he lived in a state prison for over 45 years until he was rushed to the hospital last week, dying on Sunday. Manson applied for and was denied parole 12 times during his 45 years in prison. Several of his followers were also sentenced to death, but had their terms commuted to life sentences when the California's death penalty was briefly abolished. Here's what happened to the rest of Manson's followers: Patricia Krenwinkel, 21 at the time, was arrested on December 1, 1969. The now 69-year-old remains at the California Institution for Women. She was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder. On the first day of the killing spree, she stabbed Abigail Folger 28 times, she said in court testimony. During the second night, Krenwinkel testified that she stabbed Rosemary LaBianca. She was denied parole for the 14th time in June. She'll be eligible for consideration again in five years. Charles "Tex" Watson was convicted of seven counts of first-degree murder. He was involved in both killings at Tate's and the LaBianca's residences. At age 71, Watson remains in prison and has been denied parole 17 times. Leslie Van Houten had been the youngest of Manson's followers, at age 19 when she participated in the killings of the LaBiancas. She was not involved in the murder at the Tate residence. Van Houten, now 68, has been denied parole 19 times and remains at the California Institution for Women. In September, a two-person state commission panel granted Van Houten parole for what would be the second time. But that decision requires legal review and a decision by California Governor Jerry Brown. He had rejected parole for her last year saying she "currently poses an unreasonable danger to society." Bruce Davis is serving two life sentences for the slayings of Gary Hinman and Donald Shea. Davis was not involved in the Tate and LaBianca murders. Although he was recommended for parole, it was denied by Gov. Brown in June. Bobby Beausoleil, was convicted of the murder of Gary Hinman. Beausoleil, 70, is serving a life sentence and at a Vacaville, California, medical facility. Susan "Sadie" Denise Atkins, who was involved in the Tate and LaBianca deaths, had been California's longest-serving female inmate until her 2009 death in prison. She had terminal brain cancer. By her own admission, Atkins held down and stabbed Tate, who was then eight months pregnant. Atkins also was convicted in the killings of the LaBiancas and the earlier murder of Gary Hinman. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford. She was sentenced to life in prison and was released on parole after serving 34 years in 2009. Steven "Clem" Grogan was released on parole in 1985 after revealing the location of the body of Donald Shea, who was killed in 1969.

08 November 2017 :

Death-row prisoner Emilio Avalos, 40, Hispanic, has died in custody. He is the 111th prisoner to die on the state's death row since the state enacted its death-penalty law in the 1970s. In that time, California has executed 13 prisoners. Avalos, a gang member, was convicted for the Dec. 19, 2001 murder of 20-year-old Marine Cpl. Henry Lozano as well as the Dec. 21, 1994 shooting death of 17-year-old Jahi Collins. His jury recommended the death penalty, which was upheld by Riverside Superior Court Judge James S. Hawkins on February 22, 2013 (see). Avalos was sentenced to death for Lozano's murder, and to life in prison without the possibility of parole for Collins' murder.

10 October 2017 :

Regulators reject new lethal injection method. California regulators for the second time Monday rejected a proposed new method of carrying out the death penalty by lethal injection, another move that slows the process for California to resume executing death row inmates. The Office of Administrative Law did not elaborate in its three-paragraph decision rejecting the rules. But officials previously said the proposal wasn’t clear on how the execution team would be selected and trained; how the drugs would be obtained and administered; and how a condemned inmate should be treated in the days and hours before the execution. Those issues were raised during the first rejection in December. California has nearly 750 inmates on death row, but only 13 have been executed since 1978, the last in 2006. Since then, death penalty foes and supporters have engaged in a push-pull over when and how to resume executions, if at all. One of those fights is over the method of executing inmates. State and federal judges have barred the old method of using a series of three drugs, prompting the need for new rules. New regulations must be approved by state and federal judges. The regulations up for approval Monday would have allowed condemned inmates to be executed using one of two powerful barbiturates. Inmates could also choose the gas chamber. Critics have complained that Democratic office-holders have delayed the rules for years because they are in no rush to resume executions.

18 September 2017 :

A Riverside jury today recommended the death penalty for Lorraine Hunter, 61, Black, who fatally shot her husband to collect more than $1 million in life insurance proceeds. The same panel last month convicted her of first-degree murder and found true special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and killing for financial gain in the Nov. 3, 2009 execution-style slaying of Albert Thomas, 56. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher is expected to follow the jury’s recommendation when he sentences Hunter on Dec. 8. The prosecution’s key witness was Hunter’s now-23-year-old daughter, Briuana Lashanae Hunter, who confessed to plotting with her mother to kill Thomas. Briauana Hunter pleaded guilty last year to three counts of attempted murder and one count of voluntary manslaughter. She’s slated to be sentenced to 18 years in state prison on Sept. 25.

25 August 2017 :

The California Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 66, a ballot initiative that was billed as a referendum to speed up death penalty appeals. However, the court ruled that the core feature of the referendum—time limits imposed on preparing and deciding state capital habeas appeals—was advisory rather than mandatory and ruled that defendants could raise case-specific challenges to the time limitations and to limitations on the types of issues the Proposition permits them to raise.

22 August 2017 :

Orange County judge Thomas M. Goethals barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against Scott Dekraai because of an extended pattern of misconduct by Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement. Citing "relentless non-compliance" with court orders and "chronic obstructionism" by a prosecution team it says "has effectively compromised" Dekraai's rights to due process and a fair penalty trial, judge Goethals barred prosecutors from pursuing the death penalty in the worst mass killing in Orange County history. Family members in the courtroom expressed anger at county prosecutors. Butch Fournier, whose sister Michelle, Dekraai’s ex-wife, was one of the eight victims, said, "It’s been six years for nothing. ... They caused us pain and suffering that was unnecessary. It was a cut-and-dry case." The Orange County District Attorney's office was named in a July 2017 report by Harvard University's Fair Punishment Project as one of the prosecuting offices cited for repeated prosecutorial misconduct. The mass shooting occurred on October 12, 2011, at the Salon Meritage hair salon in Seal Beach. Eight people inside the salon and one person in the parking lot were shot, and only one victim survived. Scott Evans Dekraai, who was involved in a custody dispute with his ex-wife who was one of the victims, pleaded guilty to the shooting on May 2, 2014.

18 July 2017 :

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a death sentence for Maria Del Rosio Alfaro, convicted of murdering a 9-year-old girl in 1990. Alfaro, 45, Hispanic, was sentenced to death in 1992 for fatally stabbing Autumn Wallace during a burglary and robbery of her family's home on June 15, 1990. Alfaro was 18 at the time and a drug addict. She had 4 children when she was sentenced to death at age 20. On February 10, 2015, US District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney vacated Alfaro's death sentence on the grounds that delays in California's capital punishment system produced arbitrary results in violation of the U.S. Constitution. But a 3-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that Alfaro should have raised that claim 1st in state court.

26 June 2017 :

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Eric M. Nakata sentenced James Ellis, 28, Black, to death in connection to the Nov. 23, 2009 double murder of 28-year-old Ealy Davis, Jr. and 26-year-old Shameka Reliford perpetrated during a drug deal. A jury found Ellis guilty of 2 counts of 1st-degree murder and criminal street gang activity last October and sentenced him to death on Nov. 16, 2016 (see).

15 December 2017 :

Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Monterosso sentenced David Rey Contreras to death. A Riverside County jury on March 22 (see) recommended that 29-year-old Contreras receive capital punishment for the random slayings of a man and 2 women. The 1st victim, Jose Apreza, 53, was killed on Dec. 29, 2012 while taking his dog out for a walk. Maria Gonzalez, 51, and her daughter, Consuelo Gonzalez, 25, also were on a walk near their home when they were stabbed repeatedly on Feb. 4, 2013.

12 April 2017 :

Modoc County Judge Candace Beason sentenced Cherie Lash-Rhoades, 47, native American, to death for the 4 people she murdered and 150 years to life for the attempted murder cases and special allegations. Lash-Rhoades was found guilty in December of 2016 on 4 counts of 1st-degree murder and 2 counts of attempted murder. A Placer County jury sentenced herto death on Jan. 15 (see). According to Modoc County District Attorney Jordan Funk, this is the 1st death penalty case he knows of in Modoc County. Lash-Rhoades shot 6 people at the Cedarville Rancheria Tribal Office in Alturas, ultimately killing 4 on February 20, 2014. Officials said at least 1 of the injured was also attacked with a butcher knife after Lash-Rhoades ran out of ammunition. Officials added a witness was able to escape the office and run, covered in blood, to the Alturas Police Station where they sounded the alarm. The 4 victims were identified as Rurik Davis, 50, Lash-Rhoades' brother and tribal chairman; Angel Penn, 19, Lash-Rhoades' niece; Glenn Calonico, 30, Lash-Rhoades' nephew; and Sheila Russo, 47.

25 March 2017 :

A Riverside County jury recommended the death penalty for David Rey Contreras, 29, Hispanic. The man was convicted of 3 counts of murder in the random slayings of a man and 2 women in the Perris-Nuevo area. Contreras is scheduled to return before Superior Court Judge John Monterosso on May 12 for his sentence. During the penalty phase, the defense argued that mental illness played a role in the slayings and that unusual behavior Contreras had exhibited before and after the murders was the result of paranoid schizophrenia. The 1st victim, Jose Apreza, 53, was killed on Dec. 29, 2012 while taking his dog out for a walk. Maria Gonzalez, 51, and her daughter, Consuelo Gonzalez, 25, also were on a walk near their home when they were stabbed repeatedly Feb. 4, 2013. When charges were filed in August 2013, then-Riverside County sheriff's homicide Lt. Joe Borja noted that the law enforcement definition for a serial killer is 3 victims or more.

06 February 2017 :

15 December 2017 :

Heraclio Meza, 28, Latino, was sentenced to death in Los Angeles County. He was 20 when he shot Alejandro Flores, 17, on July 16, 2009, and Rayshawn Stewart, 22, black, on July 17. Meza also was found guilty of two counts of attempted murder.

03 February 2017 :

03 February 2017 :

15 December 2017 :

Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Monterosso sentenced Johnny Lopez, 37, Hispanic, to death. He followed a November 8, 2016 (see) jury,’ recommendation.

15 December 2017 :

A judge sentenced Darnell Washington (27, male, Black) to death, upholding a Nov. 14, 2016 (see) jury’s recommendation.

14 January 2017 :

08 January 2017 :