Supreme Court Posts Video in Victim Impact Case

In 1991, the Supreme Court gave its blessing to the growing victims' rights movement by allowing prosecutors to introduce victim impact testimony during the penalty phase in murder cases. In Payne v. Tennessee, the Court said such testimony giving a "quick glimpse" into the life and impact of the murder victim was permissible.

Since Payne, victim impact statements have expanded well beyond a "quick glimpse" into extended testimony from friends and neighbors, as well as video and photo presentations. 

Today the Supreme Court denied review in two California cases in which defendants claimed that multimedia victim impact presentations prejudiced jurors against them. The California Supreme Court had ruled the presentations admissible.

But three justices indicated they would have granted review in the cases of Kelly v. California and Zamudio v. California. (Four justices are needed to grant review.) Justice David Souter, who was in the majority in Payne, would have taken the case, though he did not say why. 

Justice John Paul Stevens, a dissenter in Payne, and Justice Stephen Breyer, who was not yet on the Court in 1991, also said they'd have taken up the case. They explained their reasoning, and in an unusual step, they referred to the victim video in the Kelly case and indicated it had been put up on the Court's Web site. The 20-minute video tells the life story of Douglas Kelly's 19-year-old murder victim, Sara Weir, complete with soft music, photos and video clips. The moving Kelly video can be found here.

"When victim impact evidence is enhanced with music, photographs, or video footage, the risk of unfair prejudice quickly becomes overwhelming," wrote Stevens. "The videos added nothing relevant to the jury's deliberations and invited a verdict based on sentiment, rather than reasoned judgment." Steven said reviewing the California cases would have given the Court a chance to consider "reasonable limits" on the use of victim testimony. 

Breyer wrote that the Kelly video is "poignant, tasteful, artistic, and, above all, moving." But, he added, "the video's purely emotional impact ... may call due process protections into play."

Today's video posting was not the first time the Court has gone multimedia on its Web site. In April 2007, it posted the police video of a high-speed car chase that was important in the Court's resolution of Scott v. Harris, a Section 1983 civil rights case brought by a person severely injured in an accident resulting from the chase.