Payne v. Commonwealth

On April 9, 1985, Joseph Patrick Payne, Sr., a prisoner at the Powhatan Correctional Center, was indicted for the capital murder of David Wayne Dunford, a fellow inmate in the correctional facility. Code § 18.2-31(c). In a bifurcated trial by jury held in April 1986, defendant was found guilty of the offense and his punishment was fixed at death upon the vileness predicate of the capi tal murder sentencing statute, Code § 19.2-264.4. Subsequently, the trial court considered a probation officer’s report and, in a June 1986 hearing, additional evidence relevant to punishment. The court then…