07 July 2017 :
Tracy Petrocelli, who has spent nearly 35 years on Nevada's death row for a 1982 murder, had his sentence overturned on Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called it a "flagrant violation" of Petrocelli's constitutional rights to a lawyer and against self-incrimination when a psychiatrist who examined him at the behest of prosecutors was allowed to testify during his trial's penalty phase. By a 3-0 vote, the San Francisco-based court also upheld Petrocelli's conviction for 1st-degree murder and robbery, rejecting his claim that statements he made to detectives after his arrest were admitted improperly. The psychiatrist, Lynn Gerow, had testified that Petrocelli had a rare, incurable "psychopathic" personality, suggesting he could have a "quite high" propensity for further violence and would not learn from punishment. The psychiatrist's testimony, combined with a jury instruction raising the prospect of Petrocelli's eventual parole, "had a substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury's verdict," and therefore was not harmless. Petrocelli, 65, White, had been sentenced for the March 29, 1982 shooting death of used car salesman James Wilson during a test drive of a Volkswagen pickup. The 9th Circuit returned the case to Nevada's state courts, which can resentence Petrocelli or open a new penalty hearing. The case is Petrocelli v. Baker.
