Rhianna Benson
Questions have been raised over the potential punishments that Rob Reiner's killer will face, after police confirmed that the actor's own son is being charged with the grisly crime.
The 78-year-old filmmaker was found dead from apparent stab wounds in his Los Angeles apartment on Sunday (14 December).
His body was discovered alongside that of his wife, Michele Singer, who had been murdered in the same brutal way.
Investigators initially said they were treating their deaths as an 'apparent homicide', adding that a family member had been questioned.
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The following day, police revealed that the couple's 32-year-old son Nick Reiner had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Nick - a screenwriter, and the middle child of the pair's three children, along with son Jake 34, and daughter Romy, 28 - has not yet entered a plea.
He also failed to appear in court on Tuesday as expected, due to an unspecified health reasons, his lawyer Alan Jackson revealed.
As we say, however, in light of the charge, onlookers have questioned whether Nick is likely to face jail time, or a much harsher punishment.
A single conviction on a murder charge - when instilled in California - usually carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, with the possibility of parole after a 25 year period.
That said, though, given that the case is actually a double homicide, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office made the decision to file the charges against him slightly differently, as per the Seattle Times.
As per the state penal code, this special circumstance, commonly applied in cases of multiple murders - as well as killing for financial gain, killing a police officer or public official or a killing that involved torture - could increase the punishment to death.
So, despite California Governor Gavin Newsom previously having placed a moratorium on federal executions in the Golden State, the fact that capital punishment remains legal means it's very much a possibility.
The last death row prisoner to be executed in California was Clarence Ray Allen in 2006 by lethal injection. Allen was convicted of four murders, including three he helped orchestrate from his prison cell.
"Prosecutors can pursue death cases, and people can be sentenced to death," criminal law professor at the University of Southern California, Aya Gruber explained. "It’s just that right now they’re not being put to death."
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said prosecutors haven't made a decision as to whether they will pursue the death penalty in Nick Reiner's trial.
Revealing that the desires of the Reiner family would be taken into consideration, Hochman explained: "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."