USA - California. The California Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Tommy Adrian Trujeque

The California Supreme Court unanimously overturned the death sentence of Tommy Adrian Trujeque, 60, Hispanic. The court upheld Trujeque's 1st-degree murder conviction for the June 2, 1986, stabbing of his cousin's boyfriend, Max Facundo, but reversed his 2nd-degree murder conviction for the Jan. 23, 1987, stabbing of Raul Luis Apodaca. The court ruled that prosecutors introduced a previous murder conviction that was improperly obtained during the penalty phase of Trujeque's 1999 trial. He was sentenced to death on Sept. 11, 1999 for killing Facundo in 1986. The panel unanimously found that Trujeque was "improperly charged and subsequently convicted of Apodaca's murder" after the case against him was dismissed twice according to the government and 3 times according to the defense. The panel also set aside the special circumstance findings that Trujeque committed multiple murders and had a prior 2nd-degree murder conviction. The Supreme Court justices ruled that Trujeque's prior murder conviction from 1971 for the killing of Allen Rothenberg - in which the defendant was 16 at the time of the crime - was obtained in adult court "in violation of the double jeopardy clause" after he admitted an involuntary manslaughter charge in a juvenile court. Trujeque was charged with the killings of Facundo and Apodaca after he spoke with investigators while in custody in San Diego County more than 10 years after the killings.