A death row inmate convicted in what’s been called the worst crime in Sonoma County history has to have his habeas corpus petition heard in San Mateo County Superior Court where his trial was held, a state court ruled.
Ramon Salcido was found guilty of murder after 1989 killings that took the lives of his three daughters, his wife, his mother-in-law and her two daughters as well as Salcido’s supervisor at a winery warehouse.
The case was transferred to San Mateo County due to pretrial publicity. Salcido was convicted and sentenced to death.
Salcido asserts that San Mateo County — not Sonoma County — is the “court which imposed the sentence,” and must decide the petition itself, the First Appellate District court recounted.
“We are compelled to agree with Salcido because the Supreme Court has already determined that San Mateo County must decide Salcido’s habeas petition,” the appellate court stated. “Neither this court nor the trial court may second-guess that decision.”
Habeas corpus petitions seek a person’s release unless reason is shown for their continued incarceration.
Salcido filed a 2010 habeas petition in federal district court, which stayed the petition so that he could exhaust his claims in state court. He then filed a second petition for writ of habeas corpus in the California Supreme Court in 2013.
Salcido’s second petition remained pending in the Supreme Court in 2016 when voters approved Proposition 66, which ended the practice of capital murder defendants initiating habeas proceedings in the Supreme Court.
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