LOS ANGELES—A Los Angeles man twice convicted of murdering his father, stepmother, and 8-year-old stepsister 40 years ago had his death sentence reversed Thursday by the California Supreme Court.
The court upheld Robert Bloom’s first-degree murder conviction in his father’s slaying but reversed second-degree murder convictions in the other killings because his lawyers violated his 6th Amendment right to choose his defense.
Bloom admitted gunning down his father, Robert Bloom Sr., but denied he killed the other two. His attorneys, however, told jurors he had killed Josephine Bloom and her daughter, Sandra Hughes, as part of a legal strategy to claim that his mental state made those crimes manslaughter and not murder.
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