USA - California. 9th Circuit panel vacates Steven Edward Crittenden's conviction

9th Circuit panel vacates Steven Edward Crittenden's conviction because of biased jury selection. A divided 3-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has upheld a lower court ruling vacating Crittenden's 1989 conviction and death sentence for stabbing a couple to death in their own home. The appellate court sided with U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller, who had tossed out the verdict and sentence 2 years ago (see September 30, 2013) after finding that the prosecutor in the original case had been substantially motivated by race when he struck the only African-American from the jury pool. The prosecutor, for his part, has claimed that he struck the prospective juror because of her opposition to the death penalty. Crittenden, now 48 years old, had been convicted of murdering 67-year-old William Chiapella and his wife, 66-year-old Kathleen, in their home on the evening of January 13, 1987.