the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for a California...

the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for a California man convicted of murdering a 19-year-old woman during a burglary.
With a 5-4 decision the justices reversed an appeals court ruling that threw out Fernando Belmontes' death sentence because the trial judge misled jurors who were considering whether to give Belmontes the death penalty or life in prison.
Belmontes was 19 when, on March 15, 1981, killed of Steacy McConnell.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, twice commuted the sentence ( see July 15, 2003 and July 15, 2005).
The appeals court said the trial judge misled jurors about whether they could consider the prospect that Belmontes could live a productive life behind bars based on his good behavior during an earlier commitment to a California correctional facility for youth.
"It was mistaken...to find a 'reasonable probability' that the jury did not consider respondent's future potential," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined Kennedy's opinion.
In his dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the majority opinion reaches a "strange conclusion" based upon speculation. "I simply cannot believe that the jurors took it upon themselves to consider testimony they were all but told they were forbidden from considering," Stevens said, also writing for Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.
The case is Ayers v. Belmontes, 05-493.