The California Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part a judgment and remanded. The court held that the trial court erred in excluding a prospective juror based on her perceived “equivocal” views on the merits of the death penalty where the juror plainly avowed that she could follow her oath to conscientiously consider the death penalty and follow the law under the particular facts of the case.
In late 1998, Kevin Pearson and two other men killed Penny Sigler, whom they encountered late at night on a Long Beach street as she was going to a store. Evidence showed that Sigler was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted near where her nude body was found on a freeway embankment the next day.
