California Supreme Court
Dec. 12, 2009
High Court Reverses Death Penalty
The California Supreme Court said a Superior Court judge erred by not letting the convicted man represent himself at trial in violation of the Sixth Amendment.
Daily Journal Staff WriterThe California Supreme Court on Thursday did something it rarely does - reverse a death penalty conviction. But Raymond Oscar Butler, charged in a 1995 jailhouse stabbing death, will remain on Death Row anyway, for murdering two college students in 1994. The high court said now-retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J.D. Smith erred by not letting Butler represent himself at trial in violation of the Sixth Amendment. Two of the ...
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