Webster

This appeal requires us to decide, inter alia, whether Larry Webster’s due process rights were denied by a judicial expansion of California’s definition of death-qualifying special circumstances in violation of Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 347 , 84 S.Ct. 1697 , 12 L.Ed.2d 894 (1964). We hold that they were not and reverse the judgment of the district court.

I

This is a capital case arising out of the murder of William Burke. In late August, *525 1981, Larry Junior Webster was camping near Sacramento with five associates. Several members of the group had robbed a convenience store the previous night, and the group was aware that the police were looking for them. Webster stated that the group needed to get out of town to avoid the police, and suggested luring one of two persons he had met at a nearby gas station to the campsite, killing him, and stealing his car. They planned for Webster and two others in the group — Carl Williams and Joseph Madrigal — to lure the victim back to the camp with the promise of drugs or participating in robberies. The others were to dig a grave and clean up the campsite.

At the gas station, Webster, Williams, and Madrigal approached the…