People v. Clair CA4/3

FACTS

Every case is unique. No matter how much it resembles other cases, the parties and the issues are unique to that individual case. And we treat every case with that distinctiveness in mind, striving to give attention to the nuances which distinguish each. But this case raises singularity to a new level. This case is before us on a Wende1 motion filed almost 40 years after the underlying crime. Defendant Clair was convicted of murder and two counts of burglary in 1987 for a crime committed in 1984. The jury found the special circumstance that the murder was committed in the course of a burglary to be true and returned a death penalty verdict, which the trial court imposed in its judgment. In 1992, the California Supreme court affirmed the trial court’s judgment (People v. Clair (1992) 2 Cal.4th 629). Collateral attacks followed and the case wound its way through federal district court, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and the United States Supreme Court. (Marte, Warden v. Clair (2012) 565 U.S. 648.) It ended up in the Ninth Circuit for a second time in 2015, and was remanded back to the federal district court with directions to “return the case to the state court to reduce…