Opinion ID: 170350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Impact on Friends

Text: Barrett involved a challenge to victim-impact testimony from two friends of the victim regarding the effect his life and death had on them. The defendant objected to this testimony, arguing that Congress has expressly limited impact evidence in federal death penalty cases to evidence concerning the effect of the offense on the victim and the victim's family. 496 F.3d at 1098. We recognized the FDPA's specific reference to the effect of the offense on and loss suffered by the victim's family. Id. at 1098-99 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3593(a)). But, citing (1) the statute's additional inclusive reference to any other relevant information, id. at 1099 (same), and (2) case law permitting evidence giving the jury a glimpse of the victim's personality and the life he led, id., we rejected the defendant's rigid view of victim-impact evidence. We approved the challenged evidence, including testimony by a longtime friend of [the victim], describing . . . the impact [the victim] had on his life, and by a fellow Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper, . . . describing the impact [the victim's] death had on him. Id. Similar evidence from friends in this case was likewise admissible.