Does section 190.2(a)(2) of the California Criminal Code require a separate multiple-murder special circumstance to be attached to each murder conviction sustained in the capital case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Danks, 32 Cal.4th 269, 8 Cal.Rptr.3d 767, 82 P.3d 1249 (Cal. 2004):

By contrast to section 190.2(a)(2), section 190.2, subdivision (a)(3) provides as a special circumstance that "[t]he defendant, in this proceeding, has been convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or second degree." Section 190.2, subdivision (a)(3) does not permit a separate multiple-murder special circumstance to be attached to each murder conviction sustained in the capital case because such duplicative use of multiple-murder special circumstances "artificially inflates the seriousness of the defendant's conduct." (People v. Jones (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1115, 1148, 282 Cal.Rptr. 465, 811 P.2d 757.) However, no such duplication or artificial inflation arises when a special circumstance is charged for each earlier murder of which the defendant was previously convicted. Moreover here, the special circumstance allegations attached only to count 2, not to both counts.

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