Californian’s Murder Conviction Tossed Over Prosecutor’s Remarks

A California man got his first-degree murder conviction tossed by a split panel of the Ninth Circuit Monday after it found a prosecutor violated his due process by telling the jury the presumption of innocence didn’t apply.

Keith Undray Ford was charged with the murder of Ruben Martinez, who was shot and killed in Vallejo in 2010.

At the trial in August 2012, the prosecutor ended his rebuttal by telling the jury the “idea of this presumption of innocence is over” and that Ford was “not presumed innocent anymore.”

The court overruled a defense objection, and the jury ultimately returned ...