McKinnon

*620 Opinion

A jury found defendant Crandell McKinnon guilty of the first degree murders (Pen. Code, § 187) 1 of Perry Coder and Gregory Martin and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (§ 12021.1). The jury also found true (1) the allegation that defendant personally used a firearm in the commission of the murders (§ 12022.5) and (2) the multiple-murder special-circumstance allegation (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)).

After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death. The court denied defendant’s motion for new trial (§ 1181) and automatic application to modify the penalty verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced him to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in full.

I. Facts

A. Introduction

On January 4, 1994, defendant, a member of the Crips street gang, walked up to Perry Coder behind the Desert Edge Motel, in Banning, and for no apparent reason, placed his gun against Coder’s head, and shot him. Coder died almost instantly. About five weeks later, at the nearby Meadowbrook Apartments, defendant and Gregory Martin, a member of the Bloods street gang, argued briefly before defendant fatally shot Martin in the…

I fully endorse the majority’s preliminary holdings that, with regard to defendant’s claim the trial court improperly excused Prospective Juror R.A. for cause under the Witt standard (Wainwright v. Witt (1985) 469 U.S. 412 [ 83 L.Ed.2d 841 , 105 S.Ct. 844 ] (Witt)), under our precedents defendant did not forfeit this claim on appeal by failing to object (maj. opn., ante, at p. 638), but that, in the future, a defendant in a capital case must make a timely objection or the functional equivalent to preserve the issue for appeal (id. at p. 643). Although the “no objection required” rule of People v. Velasquez (1980) 26 Cal.3d 425 [ 162 Cal.Rptr. 306 , 606 P.2d 341 ] is a venerable one, and one on which the court has recently relied (see People v. Bivert (2011) 52 Cal.4th 96, 112 [ 127 Cal.Rptr.3d 261 , 254 P.3d 300 ] [“We have held the failure to object does not forfeit a claim raised on appeal pursuant to . . . Witt . . . .”]), I am persuaded by the majority’s discussion that the rule is ripe for reconsideration, and that—as a rule applicable prospectively only—we should require parties to make their objections known before they may on appeal challenge the excusal of a juror under…

A jury found defendant Crandell McKinnon guilty of the first degree murders (Pen. Code, § 187) [1] of Perry Coder and Gregory Martin and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon (§ 12021.1). The jury also found true (1) the allegation that defendant personally used a firearm in the commission of the murders (§ 12022.5) and (2) the multiple-murder special-circumstance allegation (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3)).

After a penalty trial, the jury returned a verdict of death. The court denied defendant's motion for new trial (§ 1181) and automatic application to modify the penalty verdict (§ 190.4, subd. (e)) and sentenced him to death. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in full.

On January 4, 1994, defendant, a member of the Crips street gang, walked up to Perry Coder behind the Desert Edge Motel, in Banning, and for no apparent reason, placed his gun against Coder's head, and shot him. Coder died almost instantly. About five weeks later, at the nearby Meadowbrook Apartments, defendant and Gregory Martin, a member of the Bloods street gang, argued briefly before defendant fatally shot Martin in the head.

The prosecution…