Ghent V. Superior Court Of Santa Clara County

The principal question in this proceeding is whether allegations of "special circumstances" made in an accusatory pleading charging murder, and portending punishment by death as provided in section 190 and related sections of the Penal Code,*fn1 may be challenged on a motion addressed to the pleading pursuant to section 995. The proceeding has reached this court (Division Four) during an unusual sequence in which another division issued an alternative writ in compliance with an order of the Supreme Court. The ensuing review has been additionally complicated by a procedural bar raised for the first time in the People's return to the alternative writ. The full sequence calls for a chronological summary of the pertinent proceedings.