People v. Whitson

Opinion

GEORGE, C. J.

In 1994, defendant Scott Alden Whitson was convicted of two counts of second degree murder, arising out of a collision in which the motor vehicle he was driving ran through a red light and crashed into another car at a speed estimated to be in excess of seventy-five miles per hour, killing the other driver as well as one of defendant’s passengers. (Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a).) A divided Court of Appeal reversed the convictions, concluding that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence (1) defendant’s pretrial statements to police officers, because the statements…