PCP Defense Fails to Help Policeman’s Murderer : Supreme Court: The state’s justices also reverse child molestation convictions of a Kern County couple.

The California Supreme Court on Monday affirmed the death sentence of a man who murdered a West Covina police officer in 1983, and reversed the child molestation convictions of a Kern County couple.

In the death penalty case, the court unanimously rejected Michael Anthony Jackson’s contention that he was not responsible for the August, 1983, murder of Kenneth Wrede, a West Covina police officer, because he was under the influence of PCP.

Justice Edward Panelli, writing for the majority, rejected several defense arguments, including that Jackson lacked intent to kill the officer and that capital punishment is unconstitutional.

Wrede, 26 and a police officer for three years, was on a routine patrol when he received a radio call that a man was acting strangely nearby.

When Wrede approached Jackson, the barefoot man attacked. Wrede ran to his car and radioed for help. At the same time, Jackson pulled Wrede’s shotgun from the car and fired. Jackson had smoked PCP earlier in the day and had cocaine in his system.

In the molestation case, the court by a 5-2 vote reversed the convictions of Margie Grafton and Tim Palomo, finding that the judge in the 1984 trial erred by refusing to let a psychologist testify that a personality test suggested that they did not fit the profile of molesters.

The ruling stemmed from a sensational case involving allegations of repeated molestations of seven young boys, including two sons of Grafton. The opinion leaves open the possibility that they can be retried.

Justice David N. Eagleson, writing for the majority, said there was no evidence other than the boys’ testimony to corroborate the charges, and that some boys contradicted one another.

In such a close case, the court concluded, expert testimony might have prompted the jury to find the defendants not guilty.

As part of its ruling, the court found that the so-called Victims Bill of Rights initiative, Proposition 8, passed by California voters in 1982, required that the testimony be admitted. Although it was intended to help prosecutors, the so-called truth-in-evidence provision requires that judges admit any relevant evidence.

In a dissent, Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas warned of “complicated and time-consuming mini-trials” that will focus on personality profiles of the defendants.

“The prospects of sidetracking the trial’s main event are enormous,” Lucas wrote.

In a third case, the justices voted 6 to 1 to reinstate the conviction of Leland R. Dellinger in the murder of his 2-year-old stepdaughter in 1979 in Orange. Last year, a court of appeal overturned Dellinger’s 1986 conviction.

Prosecutors contended that the girl died after Dellinger either hit her on the back of the head or swung her against an object. She also had cocaine in her system and had been given wine in a baby bottle.