High Court Overturns Killer’s Sentence

The California Supreme Court has overturned the death sentence of a man convicted of killing his mother, stepfather and another man, and has ordered a new trial to determine whether he should be put to death.

The state’s high court on Wednesday upheld a previous court’s ruling of guilt for Richard Bert Stewart, 40, but said that evidence of improper jury selection compelled it to reverse the death sentence.

The court agreed with Stewart that the prosecution in the case wrongly dismissed five potential jurors based solely on their written responses to questions on the death penalty.

Jurors who in some way personally objected to the death penalty were dismissed without being given an opportunity to clarify their opinions in court, according to the ruling.

“Those who firmly believe that the death penalty is unjust may nevertheless serve as jurors in capital cases so long as they clearly state that they are willing to temporarily set aside their own beliefs in deference to the rule of law,” Chief Justice Ronald George wrote.

In 1989, Stewart shot and killed his mother, Gloria Pillow; his stepfather, Weldon Ardell Pillow; and Murray Lucas, a boarder who was living with the two.