CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Halloween Costume, Precedent, Douglas Oliver
30 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Victim Impact: Legal Issues
• Booth v. Maryland (1987)
o defendant robbed and murdered elderly couple
o statute required victim impact statements
o Court rules 5-4 that 8th amendment prohibits victim impact statements and
prosecutorial statements about victim impact
• Booth majority
o Since Court had earlier ruled (Woodson) that basis for deciding on death is
“character of the individual and circumstances of the crime,” “other
factors are irrelevant to the capital sentencing decision”
o victim impact evidence presents “factors about which the defendant was
unaware, and that were irrelevant to the decision to kill”
o could lead to “competitions” or value judgments between victims
o “articulate” and “persuasive” family members will make more successful
victim impact statements
• Payne v. Tennessee (1991)
o 4 years later, Court overrules Booth, 6-3
o unusual
▪ Court is supposed to avoid overruling itself, especially when it
looks like the reason is the different composition of the Court
• stare decisis
• Kelly v. CA
o the case stems from the capital murder trial of Douglas Oliver Kelly,
whom a California jury convicted in the 1993 killing of Sarah Weir, a 19
year old he had befriended at a local gym.
o according to an autopsy, the victim – whose body was found naked – had
been stabbed 29 times with a pair of scissors
o less than 3 months later, authorities arrested the defendant as he attempted
to re-enter the country through Mexico, finding two of the victim’s
personal checks, containing what appeared to be her signature, in his
possession
• the trial
o at trial, 4 women testified to having been separately raped by the
defendant in the decade before the crime – including one woman who
testified the defendant raped her less than 2 weeks before the victim’s
murder, at the same apartment where her body was found, and while
holding a pair of scissors to her throat
o the defendant offered no evidence at the guilt or penalty phase, and the
jury imposed a death sentence
• the appeal
o on appeal, among other issues, the defendant challenged the introduction
at the penalty phase of a nearly 20 minute video montage of the victim’s
life
o prepared and narrated by the victim’s adoptive mother, the film contained
roughly 90 photos of the victim from infancy through high school
graduation
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
