Seiterle

Defendant was indicted for the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Duvel, and as to both counts he pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree. He also entered pleas of guilty to charges of several other crimes, including two counts of kidnaping for the purpose of robbery with bodily harm.

Defendant has been tried twice on the issue of penalty for the murders. In the first trial the jury fixed his punishment at death for each of the murders and at life imprisonment for each of the kidnaping counts. Under section 209 of the Penal Code the minimum punishment that could have been imposed for the kidnapings was life imprisonment “without possibility of parole, ’ ’ and on appeal we held that defendant was prejudiced in regard to the murder counts because the jury was not so instructed but to the contrary was told, without qualification as to any of the offenses involved, that a prisoner serving a life sentence might be paroled after seven years. (People v. Seiterle, 56 Cal.2d 320 [ 14 Cal.Rptr. 681 , 363 P.2d 913 ].) The portion of the judgment imposing life imprisonment for the kidnaping offenses was modified to include the words “without possibility of parole,” and that portion of the…