Two Death Sentences Upheld

The state Supreme Court upheld two death sentences today, one of which had been reversed by the justices who were defeated in the 1986 elections.

The rulings affirmed the death sentences of Melvin Meffrey Wade for the torture murder of his 10-year-old stepdaughter in San Bernardino in 1981, and of Keith Daniel Williams for the fatal shootings of two men and a woman during a robbery in Merced in 1978. Since conservatives gained a majority on the court last year, 11 of 15 death sentences have been upheld. Wade’s death sentence had been overturned by the court in January, 1987, on a 4-3 vote.