David DePape will not face additional charges over the 2022 hammer attack on Paul Pelosi after the California Supreme Court declined to revisit a lower court's decision tossing out three state counts, including attempted murder. The denial, issued Wednesday, leaves in place a ruling that found DePape could not be prosecuted in state court for conduct that already led to his federal conviction, and finalizes prosecutors' appeal over the dismissed charges. DePape's lawyer has also asked the appeals court to overturn his life sentence.
The case, People v. DePape, centers on the night of Oct. 28, 2022, when DePape broke into Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco home carrying a hammer and zip ties. According to the appellate record, DePape asked if he was speaking to Paul Pelosi, and when Pelosi confirmed it, DePape demanded, “Where's Nancy?” Pelosi told him Nancy was in Washington, then walked to the bathroom, where his phone was charging, put it on speaker and called 911.
When police arrived, DePape struck the 82-year-old Pelosi in the head with the hammer, fracturing his skull and knocking him unconscious, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The appellate opinion describes DePape raising the hammer above his head and swinging it directly at Pelosi before the blow landed.
Why the State's Case Narrowed
San Francisco Superior Court originally considered eight charges against DePape. Judge Harry Dorfman dismissed three of them — attempted murder, elder abuse and assault with a deadly weapon — finding they rested on the same actions and intentions underlying DePape's federal convictions and risked violating double-jeopardy protections, per the Chronicle's reporting. Prosecutors still won convictions on the remaining five felony charges: residential burglary, aggravated kidnapping, attempting to sway a witness, false imprisonment and threatening a family member of a public official.
Dorfman sentenced DePape to life in prison without the possibility of parole in October 2024 for the aggravated kidnapping conviction, the forcible seizure of a person to commit other crimes, the Chronicle reported. Federal prosecutors had separately convicted DePape of assault and attempted kidnapping. DePape also received a 30-year federal sentence.
Appeals Court Split on Double Jeopardy
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins' office pushed back on the dismissal, arguing DePape should face the attempted-murder charge so a jury could decide whether he intended to kill Pelosi. The 1st District Court of Appeal rejected that argument in a 2-1 decision issued June 30, ruling the attempted-murder charge and the federal assault charge were based on the same underlying actions and could not both be prosecuted.
Justice Therese Stewart, who authored the majority opinion, wrote that the physical conduct proving attempted murder was identical to the conduct that proved the federal assault charge, and that a single hammer strike to the head was enough to establish attempted murder on its own. Stewart, appointed to the court by Gov. Jerry Brown, was joined by Justice Marla Miller, also a Brown appointee. The appellate panel found that under California's statutory double-jeopardy protections, it is the underlying physical conduct — not the differing mental-state elements of each charge — that determines whether a second prosecution is barred.
Justice Tara Desautels, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, dissented. She argued that attempted murder required proof of willfulness, premeditation and deliberation that were never at issue in the federal assault case, and that the majority's conduct-only approach let a different, more serious charge disappear without separate scrutiny.
Background on the Attacker
DePape's lawyers and prosecutors have both described him as a delusional conspiracy theorist. Court records cited in the case note his belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack was an inside job, and his description of the United States as beset by what he called “evil murder magic rituals.” Those details were part of the broader record examined during his state and federal prosecutions.
With the California Supreme Court's denial of review, the appellate ruling dismissing the three state counts is now final as to prosecutors' appeal. DePape's lawyer has also asked the appeals court to overturn his life sentence. DePape continues to serve his life sentence without parole alongside the 30-year federal term he received for the same 2022 home invasion.
