People v. Sparks CA4/1

I.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

A. Sparks’s Conviction for First Degree Murder and Conspiracy to Commit Murder In 1984, Sparks was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of first degree murder (§ 187), conspiracy to commit murder (§§ 182, 187), conspiracy to obstruct justice (§ 182, subd. 5), attempted murder (§§ 664, 187), and kidnapping (§ 207). For the murder

All further statutory references are to the Penal Code. 2 conviction, the jury made a true finding on two special circumstances: that the murder was for financial gain (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(1)), and that the murder was committed while lying in wait (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(15)). In 1987, the Court of Appeal issued an opinion affirming Sparks’s conviction and rejecting his petition for habeas corpus (the 1987 Opinion). The 1987 Opinion described the factual basis for the murder conviction: “Officers of the San Jose Police Department were dispatched to the site of a reported shooting on September 26, 1980, at 7:40 a.m. Upon arrival, the police found the victim, Linda Marie Taylor, in a parked Datsun shot three times at close range with a shotgun. Witnesses were…