Man Who Killed LAPD Officer to Get New Trial
The California Supreme Court threw out a death sentence Thursday against a man convicted of murdering a Los Angeles police officer, saying his lawyer had lied and mishandled the case.
The court’s decision kept intact Kenneth Earl Gay’s conviction for the 1983 murder of Paul Verna, but returned the case to a Los Angeles court for a new sentencing hearing.
The court held that Gay did not receive “constitutionally adequate representation in the penalty phase of the trial.”
The justices stated in their opinion that Gay’s attorney, Daye Shinn, did not produce evidence which might have swayed the jury to sentence Gay to life in prison instead of death. Gay was convicted of killing Verna during a robbery.
Shinn, who has since been disbarred over his performance in another case, was found by the justices to have lied about his fees and financial relationship with specialist witnesses in the case.
Shinn could not be reached for comment.
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