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1995 SESSION
HB 1214 Capital sentencing proceedings.
Introduced by: Roger J. McClure | all patrons ... notes | add to my profiles
SUMMARY:
Capital sentencing proceedings. Permits the sentencing jury in a capital case to hear evidence of the impact the crime had upon the victim's family. This follows the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Payne v. Tennessee, 111 S.Ct. 2597 (1991), which overturned prior rulings in Booth v. Maryland, 482 U.S. 496 (1987) and South Carolina v. Gathers, 490 U.S. 805 (1989). Booth and Gathers had held that victim impact testimony and prosecutor comment upon it during a capital sentencing proceeding created an unacceptably high risk that a death sentence would be imposed in an arbitrary and capricious manner (an Eighth Amendment violation).