People v. Corona

This is a petition for habeas corpus and an appeal from a judgment of conviction entered on jury verdicts finding petitioner and defendant Juan Vallejo Corona (hereafter appellant or Corona) guilty of 25 counts of first degree murder.

The prosecution and conviction at bench grew out of the killing of 25 migratory farmworkers who died during a time frame of Februaiy-May, 1971. The gravesites and bodies were discovered on the Kagehiro and Sullivan ranches in the Maiysville-Yuba City area of Sutter County, between May 20 and June 4, 1971. Although with the exception of Kenneth Whitacre, whose remains were uncovered first, the exact dates of the demise of the victims could not be determined, the evidence introduced at the trial strongly indicated that the pattern of the killings and the modus operandi employed by the perpetrator were strikingly similar. Of all 25 victims, all but one had incurred one or more chop-type or hacking-type injuries to the head. The chop wounds were of two kinds: slashing wounds inflicted probably with a light weapon, such as a knife, and severe chop wounds caused by a heavy instrument such as a bolo machete. The latter wounds typically appeared in…