State v. Parks, 962 P.2d 486 (Kan. 1998)

Cases | State v. Parks, 962 P.2d 486 (Kan. 1998) | 2018

The defendant pled no contest to premeditated first-degree murder in the strangulation and drowning death of his wife. The trial court permitted the victim’s sister-in-law to submit a victim impact statement and to make a statement at the time of sentencing. The defendant received a life sentence. On appeal, the defendant claimed that: (1) his sentence was illegal because the victim’s sister-in-law was neither a victim nor a member of the victim’s immediate family; and (2) the inflammatory nature of the statements caused him substantial prejudice. The supreme court held that: (1) while the victim’s sister-in-law was neither a “victim” nor a member of the victim’s family, neither the Kansas Constitution Victims’ Rights Amendment nor the statutory bill of rights for crime victims restricts the ability of nonvictim and nonfamily members to testify and submit statements during the sentencing phase of criminal proceedings; and (2) the judge could properly determine the weight to give the statements, many of which were inflammatory and of little value to the judge. Further, the record did not show that the court improperly considered the statements or that the defendant’s sentence was ordered as a result of passion, prejudice, or any other arbitrary consideration by the judge.