allowing an appeal and overturning are 2 different things. the boat incident was harmless error b/c it was not in the water at the time of the "experiment."
Well it taints the evidence....and the conviction since it is against the law...for jurors to do experiments. It was a huge mistake by the judge to allow this.
Most of the legal experts said the evidence was not there. It could indeed be a reversal on appeal.
I doubt that it will be even granted a hearing; this judge has covered his butt from Day One.
BTW, death penalty cases are automatically appealed in most cases; I don't know about CA though.