Is life without possibility of parole the presumptive penalty for murder with special circumstances?
California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Cummings, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 796, 4 Cal.4th 1233, 850 P.2d 1 (Cal. 1993):
Cummings contends that he was denied an individualized sentencing determination, that the prosecutor's argument misled the jury into believing that penalty determination was a mechanical process, and that the trial court erred, under an implicit holding in People v. Brown, supra, 40 Cal.3d 512, 230 Cal.Rptr. 834, 726 P.2d 516, by failing to instruct the jury that life without possibility of parole is the presumptive penalty for murder with special circumstances.
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