Nick Reiner faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, legendary Hollywood director Rob Reiner and producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner.
But Reiner, 32, could also face the death penalty because of “special circumstance” charges the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office filed against him. Special circumstances — in Reiner’s case, allegedly killing multiple people — increase the punishment prosecutors can pursue, allowing for the possibility for harsher sentences like life without parole or the death penalty.
Reiner did not enter a plea during his Wednesday court appearance, according to the Associated Press. Even if Reiner’s case proceeds to trial and he is sentenced to death, he would be unlikely to ever face execution. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2019, which later led to the decommissioning of state’s death row facility in San Quentin.
Alan Jackson, the high-profile attorney representing Reiner, asked for a continuance in court Wednesday, saying it was too early for a plea. Jackson spoke briefly after the hearing and urged the public not to rush to judgment.
“There are very, very complex and serious issues that are associated with this case,” Jackson said. “Those need to be thoroughly, but very carefully, dealt with and examined and looked at and analyzed.”
Here’s what to know about California’s death penalty in the case against Reiner:
- Nick Reiner was arrested hours after his parents Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found stabbed to death at their Brentwood home on Sunday.
- Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders and a special allegation of using a dangerous and deadly weapon — a knife, the district attorney said.
- Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman, an independent, filed the special circumstances that would allow for the death penalty but has not said whether his office will formally seek it against Reiner.
- The death penalty remains on the books in California, but the state has not executed anyone since 2006.
What are ‘special circumstance’ charges in California?
The maximum penalty for first-degree murder in California is usually life in prison with the possibility of parole. Prosecutors can seek more severe punishments by filing a special circumstance charge that elevates the crime to a capital offense, making it a death-eligible case. A jury must also consider other elements of the case, including mitigating factors.
“Special circumstances” were California’s effort to comply with U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the 1970s that aimed to make application of the death penalty less arbitrary by narrowing the circumstances in which it could be pursued in first-degree murder cases, said Jonathan Simon, a criminal law professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law whose focus includes capital punishment and legal history.
Simon noted that California’s special circumstances have faced criticism for being too broad; they include factors like killing for financial gain, killing more than one person, and killing public officials or peace officers like police and judges.
“Various scholars over the years have claimed that California’s terms of the special circumstances are so broad that effectively any first-degree murder could be charged as a death case,” Simon said.
How does California’s death penalty moratorium affect Reiner’s case?
With the death penalty still in California law, district attorneys can still pursue new death sentences even if defendants are unlikely to ever face execution due to the governor’s moratorium and dismantling of the state’s execution chamber.
“The traditional death row as a kind of waiting chamber to [execution] seems permanently over in California,” Simon said. “It would be very difficult to imagine a governor reassembling all of that.”
Given the unlikelihood that defendants who are sentenced to death will be executed, Simon said a capital prosecution “doesn’t seem to serve a logical purpose.” But it has historically been, and still remains, a useful tool for politicians who want to signal to voters that they are tough on crime, he added.
Hochman, who in 2024 was elected L.A. County’s district attorney, lifted the office’s moratorium on seeking new death sentences that had been in place since 2020.
The L.A. County prosecutor’s office has in the past seen death sentences challenged on the basis of racial discrimination, where minorities argued they were not treated the same as White defendants, Simon said. Former L.A. County prosecutor Jackie Lacey, whose office sent 22 defendants, all of whom were minorities, to death row, previously denied that race was a factor in the office’s decision-making.
What is the likelihood the case would lead to a death penalty?
Reiner’s case is still in the early phases. Both he and prosecutors could make decisions in the coming days that eliminate the possibility of a death-penalty case altogether.
“Historically one of the main purposes of the death penalty, from a prosecutor’s point of view, was to get a quick agreement on a guilty plea,” Simon said. Leaving death on the table could incentivize a defendant to strike a plea bargain that avoids trial in exchange for a lesser punishment.
If Reiner’s case goes to trial, there is still no guarantee that a jury will vote unanimously in favor of a death sentence — a requirement in California. Death sentences are on the decline across the state, according to data from the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Since 2017, California juries have not returned more than five death sentences statewide in a single a year.
What has Reiner’s family said?
Hochman said during a Tuesday news conference he would take the Reiner family’s desires into consideration as his office weighs whether to pursue capital punishment.
“Prosecuting these cases involving family members are some of the most challenging and heart-wrenching cases that this office faces because of the intimate and often brutal nature of the crimes involved,” Hochman told reporters.
Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, have not commented publicly about their brother’s arrest or the prospect he could face the death penalty.
“Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” Jake and Romy Reiner said in a statement released by a family spokesperson Wednesday. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience.”
The degree to which prosecutors consider the family’s wishes varies widely.
“Plenty of DAs have rejected appeals from survivors not to seek the death penalty because of the values of their loved one, and the DA is sought it anyway, and it’s their job,” Simon said. “We want them to consider the community’s interests and not simply be a rubber stamp for the victim’s family or the surviving family members.”
Nick Reiner’s arraignment is scheduled for Jan. 7.
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