Federal appeals court overturns a death sentence for a murder in LA
The man convicted of a double murder in Tarzana 25 years ago will not face the death penalty. A federal appeals court has overturned that sentence.
The reason is that Scott Pinholster lacked competent legal representation, the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided.
All but one of eleven judges on that panel agreed that during the penalty phase of his murder trial, Pinholster’s attorneys didn’t present evidence of his mental illness to a jury. Most of the appeals judges said that evidence might have led to a lesser sentence.
The defense attorneys in that trial have since died. A jury convicted Pinholster of stabbing Pierce College student Thomas Johnson and medical technician Robert Beckett to death during a home invasion robbery in January 1982.
Pinholster confessed to the break-in but denied he’d committed murder. His first-degree murder conviction stands.
The appeals court has ordered a lower court to either vacate that conviction - or, within a reasonable amount of time, to re-try the penalty phase.
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