In re Richards

Filed 12/3/

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA

) ) ) S189275 In re WILLIAM RICHARDS ) ) Ct.App. 4/2 E049135 on Habeas Corpus. ) ) San Bernardino County ) Super. Ct. No. SWHSS700444 ____________________________________)

At petitioner‘s 1997 trial for the murder of his wife, the evidence against him was circumstantial. One of many pieces of evidence linking petitioner to the crime was a postmortem photograph of the victim‘s hand, depicting an indistinct, crescent-shaped lesion. The prosecution‘s dental expert stated his opinion that the lesion was a human bite mark. And after comparing the bite mark to the distinctive arrangement of petitioner‘s lower teeth, the dental expert stated that petitioner‘s unusual dentition was consistent with the shape of the mark depicted in the photograph, and that he could not exclude petitioner‘s teeth as a possible source of the mark. According to the expert, petitioner‘s unusual dentition occurred in only 2 percent or less of the general population. The jury found petitioner guilty as charged. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.…

At petitioner’s 1997 trial for the murder of his wife, the evidence against him was circumstantial. One of many pieces of evidence linking petitioner to the crime was a postmortem photograph of the victim’s hand, depicting an indistinct, crescent-shaped lesion. The prosecution’s dental expert stated his opinion that the lesion was a human bite mark. And after comparing the bite mark to the distinctive arrangement of petitioner’s lower teeth, the dental expert stated that petitioner’s unusual dentition was consistent with the shape of the mark depicted in the photograph, and that he could not exclude petitioner’s teeth as a possible source of the mark. According to the expert, petitioner’s unusual dentition occurred in only 2 percent or less of the general population. The jury found petitioner guilty as charged. The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction.

In 2007, petitioner sought habeas corpus relief in the San Bernardino County Superior Court, claiming that new evidence established his innocence, and that his murder conviction was based on false evidence given at trial by the prosecution’s dental expert. -In a declaration supporting the petition, that expert stated that…

Before 1975, a petitioner seeking habeas corpus relief could generally prevail only where the prosecution knowingly offered perjured testimony or the petitioner was able to produce new evidence pointing *971 unerringly toward innocence. (See maj. opn., ante, at p. 960.) In 1975, the Legislature amended the Penal Code to provide new grounds for relief when a conviction or guilty plea rested on false evidence. (See Stats. 1975, ch. 1047, § 2, p. 2466.) The statute now in effect makes no distinction with respect to how false evidence was introduced, nor does it condition relief upon the petitioner’s ability to produce new evidence that was not available at trial. Instead, the petitioner is entitled to relief whenever “[f]alse evidence that is substantially material or probative on the issue of guilt or punishment was introduced.” (Pen. Code, § 1473, subd. (b), hereafter section 1473(b); all further statutory references are to the Penal Code.) As the court observes, “under the present version of section 1473 it does not matter why evidence is false or whether any party to the proceeding knew it was false. So long as some piece of evidence at trial was actually false, and so long as it…