In Re Hardy

I. Introduction

Petitioner James Edward Hardy was convicted in 1983, along with codefendant Mark Anthony Reilly, of the first degree murders of Nancy Morgan and her young son, Mitchell Morgan, and of conspiracy to commit murder to collect life insurance proceeds. (Pen. Code, §§ 187, 182.) The jury also sustained six special circumstance allegations against both Hardy and Reilly, finding as to each murder that it was committed for financial gain, that the defendants committed a multiple murder and that they killed while lying in wait. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(1), (3), (15).) The jury set the penalty for both defendants at death. On appeal, this court affirmed, striking one superfluous multiple-murder special circumstance. (People v. Hardy (1992) 2 Cal.4th 86 [ 5 Cal.Rptr.2d 796 , 825 P.2d 781 ].)

Our prior opinion in this matter was not the end of the legal road for petitioner Hardy. After the United States Supreme Court denied his petition for a writ of certiorari (Hardy v. California (1992) 506 U.S. 987 [ 121 L.Ed.2d 435 , 113 S.Ct. 498 ]), he filed his first petition for a writ of habeas corpus with this court (In re Hardy, S022153 {Hardy I)). Because the petition alleged…