Opinion ID: 1998034
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Objection to victim impact statements

Text: The final issue we shall consider is whether the trial judge erred in admitting certain victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing. At the hearing, the judge admitted, over objection, two victim impact statements written by a friend of Gilbert and a colleague of Trias. Williams contends the admission of the written statements was improper. We agree. The admissibility of victim impact statements in cases in which the State seeks the death penalty or imprisonment for life without parole is governed by Md.Code (1957, 1993 Repl.Vol.), Art. 41, § 4-609(d), [12] which provides: In any case in which the death penalty or imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole is requested under Article 27, § 412, a presentence investigation, including a victim impact statement, shall be completed by the Division of Parole and Probation, and shall be considered by the court or jury before whom the separate sentencing proceeding is conducted under Article 27, § 412 or § 413. The plain language of the statute makes the preparation of a presentence investigation (PSI) report by the Division of Parole and Probation mandatory in a death penalty case, and requires that a victim impact statement be included in or incorporated as part of the PSI. The PSI in the instant case was completed before trial and apparently did not include any victim impact statement as required by the statute. As a result, the State's Attorney independently offered two written statements from friends of Gilbert and Trias, arguing that they were admissible as victim impact statements. The judge agreed and admitted the statements. The State contends that the written statements were admissible under Art. 41, § 4-609(c)(2)(ii), which authorizes the State's Attorney to prepare and submit a victim impact statement for consideration in cases where the court does not order a PSI. We disagree with the State's contention. Section 4-609(c) is a general provision that applies prior to the circuit court sentencing a defendant to the jurisdiction of the Division of Correction. It provides the court with the discretion to order a PSI in felony and certain misdemeanor cases if the court is satisfied that the investigation would help the sentencing process. Art. 41, § 4-609(c)(1). Section 4-609(c) does not apply in death penalty cases, which are specifically governed by § 4-609(d), and in which a PSI and victim impact statement are mandatory rather than discretionary. See Passnault v. Board of Admin. Appeals, 309 Md. 466, 475, 525 A.2d 222, 226 (1987)(noting that an applicable specific statute controls over a general statute). See also State v. Kennedy, 320 Md. 749, 755, 580 A.2d 193, 196 (1990). Hence, the State has no right in a death penalty case to admit its own written victim impact statements under § 4-609(c)(2)(ii). The only written victim impact statement admissible in a death penalty case is that contained in the PSI prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation and specifically authorized as well as required by § 4-609(d). Because the statements written by friends of Gilbert and Trias were not included in or incorporated as part of a PSI prepared pursuant to § 4-609(d), they should not have been admitted. We stress, however, that we do not mean to rule out the possibility that information from friends or colleagues of a victim might be considered in the sentencing phase of a death penalty case. Such information may well be admissible if it is included in or incorporated as part of the PSI report prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation, which has wide latitude in preparing such reports. Our interpretation of the statute is simply that the only written victim impact statements that are admissible in death penalty cases are those made part of a PSI prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation as authorized by Art. 41, § 4-609(d). [13] The State also argues that despite the unambiguous language of the PSI statute, the statements from the friends of Gilbert and Trias were admissible at sentencing under the holding of Reid v. State, 302 Md. 811, 490 A.2d 1289 (1985). In Reid, we held that the State could admit, in addition to the victim impact statement prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation and included in the PSI, a separate, additional victim impact statement prepared by the State's Attorney. 302 Md. at 821, 490 A.2d at 1294. We interpreted a prior version of the PSI statute, then codified as Md.Code (1957, 1982 Repl.Vol.), Art. 41, § 124, as setting a minimum standard for what the sentencing judge... must consider.... Reid, 302 Md. at 821, 490 A.2d at 1294. We stated that the statute does not prevent additional statements or comments from being offered by the victim, his family or the State's Attorney, and we left it to the discretion of the sentencing judge whether to receive and consider such supplemental statements. Id. This reasoning, however, does not apply in the instant case. Reid was not a death penalty case. As we have explained, the admissibility of victim impact statements in death penalty cases is specifically governed by Art. 41, § 4-609(d), which requires that the Division of Parole and Probation prepare a PSI and victim impact statement in every death penalty case. Our decision in Reid was based on a prior version of the PSI statute which did not include the provision mandating the preparation of a presentence investigation and victim impact statement by the Division of Parole and Probation in all capital cases. The legislature added that provision in 1983. See Chapter 297 of the Acts of 1983. We believe that the specific provision requiring a PSI and victim impact statement, now codified as Md.Code (1957, 1993 Repl.Vol.), Art. 41, § 4-609(d), controls the admissibility of victim impact statements in death penalty cases. In adopting this specific provision requiring the preparation of a victim impact statement by the Division of Parole and Probation in all death penalty cases, we believe that the legislature intended to limit the use of written victim impact statements in death penalty cases to those included in or incorporated as part of a PSI prepared by the Division of Parole and Probation. See Scott v. State, 297 Md. 235, 246-52, 465 A.2d 1126, 1132-35 (1983)(recognizing that the type of evidence admissible pursuant to the sentencing statutory scheme in a death penalty case is generally more restricted than evidence admissible at sentencing in a non-death penalty case). The State also argues that the statements are admissible under a provision of the general statute governing the admissibility of evidence at a capital sentencing proceeding. Md.Code (1957, 1992 Repl.Vol., 1995 Supp.), Art. 27, § 413(c)(v) allows the court to admit [a]ny other evidence that [it] deems of probative value and relevant to sentence, provided the defendant is accorded a fair opportunity to rebut any statements. As with § 4-609(c), this general provision does not apply in the instant case, however, because the legislature has enacted a specific statute dealing with admissibility of written victim impact statements. See Passnault, 309 Md. at 475, 525 A.2d at 226. See also Kennedy, 320 Md. at 755, 580 A.2d at 196.