Criminal Law

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pwbr42

Business Finance

Description

Victims' rights have grown tremendously over time. Victim impact statements are now widely accepted and may take the form of written documents as part of the probation department's presentence report furnished to the court. These statements allow a victim or the family of a victim to describe their loss, suffering, and trauma experienced from the crime. Many jurisdictions also allow for oral allocution which is the right to make a statement in open court prior to the court imposing sentence. The impact of these statements on courts, however, is questionable.

Although generally acceptable, there are due process limits to the admission of victim impact evidence. Such evidence that is considered unnecessarily duplicative or prejudicial may be excluded by trial courts. Trial judges must make the decision of allowing victim impact evidence after considering the relative value-added status of the victims.

For your main post, locate a case addressing the issue of victim impact statements, as was addressed in Payne v. Tennessee and respond to the following:

  • Summarize the facts and court holding in your selected victim impact evidence case.
  • Examine if such evidence is not included in the statutory aggravating factors in your jurisdiction.
  • Analyze the constitutional implications victim impact evidence may have in the context of a capital murder offense.
  • Explain whether you, as a criminal justice professional, feel that the Eighth Amendment should bar the admissibility of victim impact evidence during the penalty phase of a capital murder trial.

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Explanation & Answer

Attached.

Surname 1
Your name
Professor’s name
Course name
Date of Submission
Criminal Law
South Carolina v. Gathers (1989)
Demetrius Gathers was found guilty and sentenced to death on the accounts of firstdegree murder of Richard Haynes, a rationally incapacitated man he come across at a recreation
center. Gathers with three friends by beating and crushing a bottle over his head, kicking him
seriously, and embedding sun umbrella into his anus assaulted the victim. Amid the convicting
hearing, the prosecuting attorney disclosed that the victim was in possession of a religious strip
and a voter’s card in his pocket in the course of the act of the offence. In his end contentions, he
alluded to the voter card and tract in depth and derived individual qualities from the two pieces
(Slow...


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