NEWS (2/​13/​20): The California Supreme Court has grant­ed a new tri­al to Kenneth Earl Gay, who was sen­tenced to death in 1985 for the mur­der of a Los Angeles police offi­cer. In a unan­i­mous deci­sion on February 13, 2020, the court ruled that Gay’s lawyer had ​“obtained appoint­ment to rep­re­sent Gay through fraud, coun­seled him to make dam­ag­ing con­fes­sions to the pros­e­cu­tion with­out safe­guards to ensure the con­fes­sions would not be used with­out a deal (while deceiv­ing him as to whether such safe­guards were in place), and failed to con­duct a time­ly inves­ti­ga­tion into avail­able tes­ti­mo­ny from eye­wit­ness­es who would have excul­pat­ed Gay and peace offi­cers who would have incul­pat­ed Gay’s code­fen­dant.” The court had over­turned Gay’s death sen­tence in 1998, find­ing that the lawyer had pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the sen­tenc­ing phase of trial.