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California

CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

By Jack Leonard
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The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office will not refile charges in a controversial 1980 murder case in which prosecutors were accused of withholding evidence that showed their star witness had confessed to the killing, a prosecutor said Friday.

The decision comes two weeks after a judge threw out the previous murder charge against Adam Miranda, ruling that prosecutors violated his rights by failing to turn over the information to his attorneys. Miranda pleaded guilty in 1983 to second-degree murder in the death of Robert Hosey and was sentenced to life in prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Grace said his office would “monitor events and see if circumstances warrant attempting to refile the case at a later date.”

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Miranda, 48, remains in prison on an unrelated murder conviction. In that case, a jury found him guilty of gunning down a convenience store clerk in a robbery captured on a security video. Miranda, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole, has filed court papers seeking to overturn the conviction.

-- Jack Leonard

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Jack Leonard

As senior editor of investigations, Jack Leonard oversaw the work of a team of investigative reporters. As a reporter, he was part of the team that exposed fraud and abuse in California’s conservatorship system, a series that won several national awards. He went on to investigate how early releases from L.A.’s jail system perverts justice and fosters more crime on the street. Later, he worked on a sweeping expose of abuse and corruption in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department.

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