The U

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3 to 0 that Rodney J. Alcala, now 59, who has spent 22 years on California's death row, is entitled to a new trial because his constitutional rights were violated repeatedly at a 1986 trial in Orange County. That trial was his 2nd in the death of Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl last seen alive on June 20, 1979. The 1st conviction, in 1980, was also overturned. The appeals court ruled that the judge in the 1986 trial wrongly barred testimony that would have cast doubt on the prosecution's principal witness. Meanwhile, however, prosecutors have brought murder charges against Alcala in the Dec. 16, 1977, killing of Georgia Wixted, 27, allegedly as Alcala was committing a burglary. Wixted was raped and beaten to death. State officials tested Alcala's DNA as part of a program of taking DNA samples from people in prison.