The Supreme Court today affirms the three death penalties in People v. Holmes, McClain, and Newborn for the 1993 murder of three young teenagers who were mistaken for gang members. It’s not a unanimous decision, with disagreements over the use of stun belts on the defendants during the initial (hung) and retried penalty phases and the issue whether there was Batson error, i.e., the prosecution’s discrimination against Black women prospective jurors.
