Washington v. State, 989 P.2d 960 (Okla. Crim. App. 1999)

Cases | Washington v. State, 989 P.2d 960 (Okla. Crim. App. 1999) | 2018

After shooting his ex-wife to death in a laundromat, the defendant was convicted of murder. After a penalty phase in which two letters were introduced, one written by the victim to her parents before she was murdered and the other written by the victim’s father to the district attorney, the defendant was sentenced to death. On appeal, the defendant argued many issues, including that the victim impact testimony allowed during the penalty phase was inappropriate. The court of appeal held that the letter written by the victim did not constitute impact evidence since it was written prior to the murder and does not address how her murder affected her family; “the letter is hearsay for which no exception applies and its [mischaracterization as victim impact evidence and subsequent] admission was error.” The second letter exceeded the bounds of permissible victim impact evidence because of the “overamplified” request for the death penalty and references to the Bible. The conviction was affirmed, but the sentence was modified to life without the possibility of parole.