9th Circuit overturns state Supreme Court and vacates a man’s death sentence

Elisabeth Semel interviewed for Daily Journal (registration required), June 3, 2015

“The 9th Circuit has not hesitated to take on the California Supreme Court when it concludes that the high court has given short shrift to federal constitutional requirements, and did so today in Pensinger.” The circuit panel found that the omitted instruction, Semel noted, “is a constitutional necessity, not mere state law nicety.”