An appeals court panel has reversed the murder conviction of a mother accused of driving her teenage son and his friends to a Southern California park where a 13-year-old rival gang member was stabbed to death.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal panel ruled 2-1 on Monday that jurors in the case of 33-year-old Eva Daley were given an "impermissibly ambiguous" jury instruction during the 2008 trial.

Associate Justice Laurie D. Zelon wrote that case records don't show the jury based its verdict on a legally valid theory, so the conviction should be reversed.

Daley had been convicted of second-degree murder for the 2007 death of Jose Cano.

Prosecutors argued that Daley wanted revenge because Cano allegedly stabbed her son six months earlier.

Answers to this question and more will be provided during an upcoming program sponsored by the American Bar Association.  The program will be held as part of the association’s Annual Meeting, which begins Thursday.

Who:        Stewart A. Baker

                Former assistant secretary for Policy, Department of Homeland Security

What:       “Cyber Security, Law and Liability — Thieves, Spies and Hostile Armies”

                Sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Law & National Security

When:       Friday, 3:45 p.m. — 5:15 p.m.

Where:       Moscone West Convention Center

     Room 2022, Second Floor

     747 Howard St.

     San Francisco

Joining Baker in the discussion will be Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, dean and professor of law, University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, and former general counsel, CIA; Robert Knake, International Affairs Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, and co-author of Cyber War; and

Harvey Rishikof, professor of law and national security studies at the National War College, and former legal counsel to the deputy director of the FBI.

What will happen if the government makes it easier for federal agencies to demand that companies release personal electronic communications of persons who are part of a terrorism investigation?  Baker answered that question in The Washington Post (7/29). 

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.