the death penalty of a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering...

the death penalty of a man convicted of kidnapping and murdering an 8-year-old girl was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court upheld the conviction of Richard Hovey, 54, for the March 10, 1978 murder of Tina Salazar, but set aside his death sentence because of incompetence of his defense attorneys during the penalty phase of his 1981-82 trial in Alameda County Superior Court.
A 3-judge panel of the appeals court said Hovey's defense attorneys at the trial were incompetent in failing to give a defense psychiatrist key information about Hovey's mental condition.
The court said the attorneys' failure to give the psychiatrist information about a previous mental health hospitalization and about another kidnapping by Hovey undermined the doctor's testimony that Hovey was schizophrenic.