California (12.6.2004)

Two cases today:

In Gates v. Discovery Communications, Inc. (S115008), the Court overruled its 1971 decision in Briscoe v. Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 4 Cal.3d 529.  The Court held that Gates, convicted for being an accessory to a murder   for hire in 1988, does not have a valid action for invasion of privacy against the Discovery Channel for a documentary it aired in 2001 about the crime.  Gates, relying on Briscoe, argued that he was damaged by the broadcast.  Briscoe held that publication of true, but injurious, information concerning the criminal past of a rehabilitated convict might create a valid cause of action if the information is not newsworthy.  A unanimous Court today found that a series of United States Supreme Court decisions, including Cox Broadcasting Corporation v. Cohn, 420 U.S. 469 (1975), have “fatally undermined” Briscoe.

The L.A. Times also wrote  about the case on November 29.

In People v. San Nicolas (S028747) the Court unanimously upheld a judgment of death in a conviction for two murders and a rape.  The defendant raised a laundry list of errors, perhaps the most salient of which was his assertion that a taped confession taken six days after he requested a lawyer should have been suppressed.  The Court found that the defendant did not request a lawyer on the day his confession was taped, and that the police properly read defendant his Miranda rights, which he waived.