Court acts to reinstate death sentence in Calif.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has thrown out, for the third time, a federal appeals court ruling favorable to a convicted murderer in California whose case has bounced around the courts for a quarter-century.

The justices, in an unsigned opinion Monday, moved to reinstate the death penalty for Fernando Belmontes in the beating death of a 19-year-old woman in 1981.

Belmontes broke into a house, confronted Steacy McConnell and savagely beat her with a dumbbell. She later died from her injuries. Belmontes stole her stereo, sold it for $100 and spent some of the money on beer.

A jury convicted him of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death.

Three times, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has commuted Belmontes' sentence to life in prison. The Supreme Court has three times reversed the appeals court.

In its most recent ruling, the appeals court split 2-1 in saying that Belmontes' lawyer did such a poor job during the sentencing phase of the trial that it had no choice but to throw out the death sentence.

The dissenting judge noted that, whatever the lawyer's failings, he succeeded in keeping from the jury strong evidence that Belmontes had committed another murder — information that may well have overwhelmed evidence favorable to Belmontes.

The case is Wong v. Belmontes, 08-1263.