Crime Victim Testimony: Payne v. Tennessee

Guests on C-SPAN discussed the arguments being heard in the Supreme Court case, Payne v. Tennessee. The justices had to decide if testimony about the victim is allowable. Payne was sentenced to the death penalty and charged that testimony given by relatives of the murder victim swayed the jury. John Stein Officer, National Organization for Victim Assistant, said that the Court had signaled that, in this particular issue, “it is not clear about its own mind.” The Court had had contradictory rulings in two similar cases in the last four years. Professor Ira Robbins, American University School of Law said the case is also important for its impact on whether the death penalty was to be implemented in a fair or arbitrary manner. close