SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 4.7.2025
California criminal justice grinds slowly and not necessarily fairly. Particularly when the death penalty is at issue.
Why has it taken 16 years for the California Supreme Court to over turn a jury’s verdict now 16 years old?
Why did the trial Judge not declare a mistrial in 2009 when a holdout juror refused to convict?
Instead this Judge ousted the recalcitrant juror, empaneled an alternate juror who voted to convict. Kicking off a 16 year appeal process while the accused has languished behind bars since 2009.
What’s next? Another trial no doubt with witnesses whose memories have faded over time.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 4.3.2025
A California Supreme Court unanimously overturned Timothy Joseph McGhee’s convictions and death sentence for three gang-related killings in Los Angeles between 1997 and 2001. Prosecution witnesses said he had fatally shot members of rival gangs, while the defense said the witnesses had admitted being under the influence of alcohol and drugs and had been coached by prosecutors.
After three days of deliberations on his guilt, the court said, several jurors told the trial judge that another juror appeared to be incapable of making a fair decision, had expressed distrust of the police and had told them, “I am not changing my mind.”
After speaking with other jurors, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry questioned the holdout juror, then removed him, saying he was biased and had refused to deliberate. He was replaced by an alternate juror who then joined unanimous verdicts for convictions and a death sentence.
In a unanimous ruling overturning the convictions and sentence, Justice Goodwin Liu said the juror’s stated refusal to change his mind about McGhee’s guilt did not amount to a refusal to deliberate, and he should have been allowed to remain on the jury.
The juror “was rejecting, not disregarding, the prosecution’s evidence, and the record as a whole indicates that his rejection was based on the evidence,” Liu said.
“There was an evidentiary basis for (the juror’s) concerns regarding the credibility of the witnesses who were central to the prosecution’s case,” Liu wrote. He said many of the prosecutions’ witnesses were current or former gang members, and some admitted having lied to the police.
McGhee, was initially convicted and sentenced in 2009 and who could still face death penalty charges from Los Angeles County’s newly elected district attorney, Nathan Hochman.
McGhee’s lawyer, Patrick Ford, said the ruling “sent the important message that our system won’t tolerate the removal of a dissenting juror,” especially one who was troubled by what Ford described as “massive police misconduct.”
Hochman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is People v. McGhee, S169750.
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