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State v. Davis12/21/2000
im impact" evidence at the sentencing phase of a capital trial. Payne, 501 U.S. at 825, 115 L. Ed. 2d at 735. The State should not be barred from demonstrating the loss to society and to the victim's family which resulted from the homicide. Id. However, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution may provide a defendant relief where the "victim impact" evidence is "so unduly prejudicial that it renders the trial fundamentally unfair." Id. Finally, in discussing the admissibility of character evidence of the victim, this Court has held that "the State should be given some latitude in fleshing out the humanity of the victim so long as it does not go too far." Reeves, 337 N.C. at 723, 448 S.E.2d at 812.
In the present case, defendant filed a motion in limine to prohibit the State from "introducing or arguing victim impact evidence," including evidence of the survivors' "grief and trauma" at "any phase of" the sentencing hearing. The trial court denied the motion.
During jury selection and the sentencing proceeding, the prosecutor, over objection, introduced certain courtroom spectators as good friends or family members of Miller. Furthermore, Bobby Fortune, a witness for the State, testified that he "loved" Miller; "went together" with Miller for twenty-five years before, between, and after her marriages; and helped Miller landscape her backyard. The State elicited the following testimony from Fortune during direct-examination:
Q. Mr. Fortune, tell the jury how Joyce Miller's death has impacted you.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Objection.
COURT: Overruled.
A. Joyce Miller's death affected me where I can't think at times. The job I do, I need to think . . . and at times she gets on my mind so bad that I can't even work, or won't work. I just sit around the house mostly moping or staring or just daydreaming. It helps a lot sometimes if I got friends . . . but after they're gone and I'm there by myself, that's when it hurts the most. She is constantly staying on my mind night and day. I get up with her on my mind and go to bed with her on my mind.
We conclude that the evidence admitted regarding Fortune's close relationship with the victim did not go too far and was not "so unduly prejudicial that it render the trial fundamentally unfair." Payne, 501 U.S. at 825, 115 L. Ed. 2d at 735. The limited "victim impact" evidence that was introduced at the capital sentencing proceeding was proper pursuant to Payne and Reeves. This assignment of error is rejected.
In his eleventh argument, defendant contends that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutors to ask impertinent and badgering questions. Defendant argues that the trial court violated the rules of evidence as well as the United States and North Carolina Constitutions, and committed plain error. We disagree.
Many of the questions and answers that defendant challenges either were admitted without objection or, if objected to and sustained, were not followed by a motion to strike. Defendant's failure to object or, in the alternative, move to strike following a sustained objection limits our review to plain error. State v. Barton, 335 N.C. 696, 709, 441 S.E.2d 295, 302 (1994). We find no plain error.
The remaining questions that defendant challenges were objected to and properly overruled because defendant had previously injected the evidence into the proceeding or allowed it to be admitted as evidence earlier with no objection. See Hunt, 325 N.C. at 196, 381 S.E.2d at 459. This assignment of error is without merit.
In his twelfth argument, defendant contends that the trial court erred by excluding letters and cards
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