People v. Hardy
233 Cal. Rptr. 3d 378
| Cal. | 2018Background
- Defendant Warren Hardy (Black) was convicted by jury of first-degree murder with multiple special circumstances (robbery, kidnapping for rape, rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object, torture) for the 1998 killing and sexual assault of Penny Sigler (White); defendant was sentenced to death and appeals automatically.
- Physical and forensic evidence tied Hardy to the scene: Sigler suffered extensive blunt-force and sexual injuries; DNA from a bite mark matched Hardy; victim’s clothing/food stamp cover and defendant’s clothes produced linking evidence.
- Hardy gave statements admitting presence and participation (biting, stealing clothing/shoes, returning to remove a wooden object) but denied being the actual killer; jury found him an aider-and-abettor (major participant or intent to kill).
- Pretrial and trial disputes included: two prospective jurors excused for cause over death-penalty views; prosecutor used peremptory strikes that removed all African-American prospective jurors she could; exclusion of victim toxicology in guilt phase; multiple contested jury instructions (felony-murder, aiding-and-abetting/NPC theory, torture predicate, specific intent).
- The Supreme Court of California affirmed the convictions and death judgment, rejecting Hardy’s challenges to juror excusals, Batson/Wheeler claim, evidentiary rulings, instructional claims, and penalty-phase challenges; Justice Liu dissented on Batson grounds.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument (People) | Defendant's Argument (Hardy) | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1) Excusal for cause of prospective jurors opposed to death penalty | Court properly applied Wainwright/Witt deference; jurors’ equivocal answers justified excusal | Trial court erred in excusing jurors for cause (violations of constitutional rights) | Affirmed: trial court’s for-cause excusals sustained under Witt standard (deferential review) |
| 2) Prosecutor’s peremptory challenges (Batson/Wheeler) | Prosecutor gave race-neutral reasons for strikes (distrust of prosecutors, legal employment, unwillingness to serve, past arrest, demeanor, LWOP view); trial court reasonably credited them | Strikes were pretextual; prosecutor removed every available Black juror, disparate treatment of similar white jurors; requires reversal | Affirmed: no Batson/Wheeler violation; reasons were plausible, supported by record, and trial court’s credibility determination upheld (dissent disagrees) |
| 3) Exclusion of victim toxicology from guilt phase | Exclusion proper: limited relevance to guilt and risked confusion/undue consumption of time; admissible in penalty phase | Toxicology was relevant to provocation theory and corroboration of defendant’s statement that victim used a racial slur | Affirmed: trial court did not abuse Evid. Code §352 discretion; toxicology admitted at penalty phase instead |
| 4) Instructional sufficiency — felony-murder, aiding-and-abetting/NPC, torture predicate, lesser-included theft, provocation | Instructions correct as given; any errors (e.g., NPC stated but jury found valid felony-murder theories; torture listed erroneously among predicate felonies) were harmless because jury found valid bases for first-degree murder and true special circumstances | Several instructional errors (mixing predicate felonies/intents, failure to instruct on independent-felonious-purpose or theft lesser included, NPC misuse) deprived defendant of fair trial | Affirmed: instructions read as a whole were legally adequate or any errors harmless beyond a reasonable doubt |
Key Cases Cited
- Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412 (trial-court deference in excusing jurors for cause in capital cases)
- Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (peremptory strikes based on race prohibited)
- Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231 (comparative juror analysis and probing pretext)
- Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. 472 (demeanor explanations and comparative analysis in Batson review)
- Uttecht v. Brown, 551 U.S. 1 (role of counsel and trial judge in juror-excusal inquiry)
- People v. Green, 27 Cal.3d 1 (independent felonious purpose rule for felony-murder special circumstance)
- People v. Pearson, 53 Cal.4th 306 (harmlessness of erroneous torture predicate instruction where other valid predicates found)
- People v. Chiu, 59 Cal.4th 155 (aider-and-abettor cannot be convicted of first-degree murder under natural-and-probable-consequences theory)
- People v. Gutierrez, 2 Cal.5th 1150 (third-stage Batson review; need for reasoned trial-court analysis)