Cases | Commonwealth v. Natividad, 773 A.2d 167 (Pa. 2001) | 2018
The defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and eight additional charges and sentenced to death. Victim impact testimony was introduced during the penalty phase of the trial. On direct appeal, the defendant argued that the statutory subsections that allowed the introduction of victim impact testimony in the penalty phase of a capital case were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania denied the defendant’s constitutional challenges to the introduction of victim impact testimony during the penalty phase of his capital case. The court agreed that requiring notice of the intent to introduce victim impact testimony prior to trial was a better practice than the one in place at the time of the defendant’s trial, as it would enable the defendant to prepare for the introduction of such evidence prior to jury selection, and would not be a burden to the Commonwealth to provide pretrial notice of such testimony. In this case, the Commonwealth provided notice of its intent to introduce such testimony at the conclusion of the guilt phase of the defendant’s trial. The defendant’s motion to preclude the victim impact testimony of the victim’s widow was argued and denied, but the witness was directed to reduce her testimony to writing and submit it to the defendant prior to the sentencing phase. The witness complied, the trial court reviewed the written statement prior to admitting the testimony, and the defendant voiced no further objection to the testimony. Thus, the court determined that the defendant suffered no prejudice. The court did, however, reaffirm its position that in all future cases, notice of the intention to introduce such testimony must be provided prior to trial. Finally, the court concluded that the trial court’s instructions to the jury regarding the victim impact evidence provided sufficient structure for the jury to properly consider the witness’s testimony in relation to all the other relevant information pertinent to the deliberative process in imposing a sentence in this case.