In Re Price

A jury convicted petitioner Curtis F. Price of the first degree murders (Pen. Code, § 187) of Elizabeth Ann Hickey and Richard Barnes. As to the murder of Hickey, the jury made special circumstance findings of multiple murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)) and burglary murder (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(17)(G)), and it fixed the penalty at death. The trial court denied the automatic motion to modify penalty (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced petitioner to death. On petitioner’s automatic appeal, this court unanimously affirmed the judgment. (People v. Price (1991) 1 Cal.4th 324 [ 3 Cal.Rptr.2d 106 , 821 P.2d 610 ].)

In a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, petitioner seeks relief from the judgment. He has alleged, among other things, that during the capital trial “the prosecutor in this case improperly tampered with a sitting juror by sending her alcoholic drinks and money, telling her to return a guilty verdict.” We issued an order to show cause on this claim only. By limiting the order to show cause to this single claim, we made an implicit determination that petitioner failed to state a prima facie case as to the other claims alleged in the petition. (See In re Sassounian (1995) 9…