The California Supreme Court upheld a previous court's...

The California Supreme Court 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, solely because of their written responses to questions about their opinions 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 difference to the rule of law," Chief Justice Ronald George wrote. In 1989, Stewart, in a dispute with his family, shot and killed his mother, Gloria Pillow, his stepfather, Weldon Ardell Pillow, and Murray Lucas, a border who was living with the 2 in Richmond. The case is People v. Stewart, S020803.