Cases | Williams v. State, 188 P.3d 208 (Okla. Crim. App. 2008) | 2018
After taking part in a bank robbery in which two bank workers were shot and killed, the defendant was convicted of murder, robbery with firearms, and shooting with intent to kill. The jury found two aggravating circumstances and sentenced the defendant to death. On appeal, the defendant argued among other things that victim impact statements received at sentencing exceeded the scope of allowable victim impact testimony. The court of appeals held that the victim impact evidence was proper because it was “not fraught with the type of emotional content that would cause a jury to totally ignore mitigating evidence” and because, even though some of the people mentioned in the victim impact evidence were not immediate family members, “portions of the statements can be read to show how the immediate family members’ interaction with others outside the immediate family was impacted [sic] by the death” and the remainder of the statements gave a glimpse into the victim’s life. The judgments and sentences were affirmed.