State : Death Upheld in Student Murders
<i> From Times wire services</i>
SAN FRANCISCO —
The state Supreme Court today upheld a death sentence for the 1978 murders of three students in the Kern County desert by David Murtishaw despite the fact that the penalty trial was conducted under the wrong law.
The 4-3 decision by the conservative-dominated court overturned a 1983 ruling by the liberal Rose Bird court that required reversal of death sentences in trials that were mistakenly conducted under California’s current death penalty law for murders that occurred when a narrower law was in effect.
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