Sermons v. State

Bell, Justice.

This is an interlocutory appeal in a case in which the state seeks a death sentence. We address two issues: (1) the scope of permissible “victim impact” evidence, and (2) whether the defendant was entitled to a preliminary expert evaluation of hospital records to determine if the cause of one victim’s death might legitimately be disputed.

1. We first address the scope of permissible “victim impact” evidence. Victim impact evidence has been defined as “simply another form or method of informing the sentencing authority about the specific harm caused by the crime in question.”…