Expert Testimony Challenge in California Death Penalty Case
Author: Fred Cohen.
Source: Volume 19, Number 02, July/August 2017 , pp.29-29(1)
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Abstract:
Ten days after his release from the California Youth Authority (CYA) young Grayland Winbush murdered a young woman in her home during a robbery. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. When defense lawyers raised the possibility that their young client's 'future dangerousness' could be mitigated by treatment for previously undiagnosed ADHD, it permitted the prosecution to raise the issue of future dangerousness in cross-examining its own experts, which ended up being far more persuasive and damaging to the defense case. In People v. Winbush, 387 P.3d 1187 (Cal. 2017) the Supreme Court of California upheld the sentence of death. The court rendered a 77-page opinion that includes important reasoning on evidence raised during the cross-examination of an expert on antisocial personality and future dangerousness.Keywords: Antisocial Personality and Future Dangerousness
Affiliations:
1: Executive Editor.