Criminal,
California Supreme Court
Aug. 24, 2021
State high court reverses conviction, death sentence over lack of competency hearing
"Given the passage of time and the corollary difficulty of reconstructing defendant's mental state at the time of trial, none of that potential evidence could possibly place defendant 'in a position comparable to the one he would have been placed in' if a timely competency trial had been held in 2008," Justice Martin J. Jenkins wrote for a unanimous court.
In a rare reversal, the California Supreme Court on Monday unanimously overturned a Contra Costa County man's death sentence and murder conviction, ruling he should have had a pretrial competency hearing.
It's too late for that now, the court said.
The court ruled Edward Wycoff, who was sentenced to death in 2008 for killing his sister and brother-in-law in front of their children, could be retried if the trial court finds him competent. As a result of the reversal, Wy...
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