Cases | Kemp v. State, 74 S.W.3d 224 (Ark. 2002) | 2018
The defendant was convicted and sentenced to death on each of four counts of capital murder. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed all four convictions but reversed three of the death sentences. Following a resentencing hearing, the defendant was again sentenced to three death penalties. The defendant then filed a petition for postconviction relief, arguing that his counsel had provided ineffective assistance. The trial court denied the petition, and the defendant appealed. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Arkansas reversed and remanded, holding that the trial court had not made specific written findings of fact and conclusions of law with respect to the issues at hand. After the trial court amended its order, it filed the order, again denying the defendant’s petition for postconviction relief. The defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that the victim-impact statute was unconstitutional and that the use of victim-impact evidence in his case violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed the trial court, noting that, while these issues had already been considered on direct appeal, the trial court had been directed to make specific findings with respect to these issues out of an abundance of caution and because this was a case in which the death penalty had been imposed. The Court then noted that it had upheld the constitutionality of the victim-impact statute on “many occasions,” and that the defendant had not provided the Court with a reason for departing from its previous holdings. The Court found further that the victim-impact testimony provided in this case was not so unduly prejudicial as to render the trial fundamentally unfair.