Opinion ID: 1703071
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: testimony of healthcare providers

Text: Next, we explore the issue of whether La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.2 allows testimony from healthcare providers. La. C.Cr.P. art. 905.2(A) expressly permits testimony about the impact of the crime on the victim from persons outside of the immediate family only in cases in which the victim has died. As presently written, Louisiana's capital sentencing procedures do not permit testimony from mental health professionals as to their diagnosis and treatment of the victims although that testimony is otherwise relevant to an assessment of the impact of the crime on the victim. We note in this regard that the legislature has not expressly authorized testimony from mental health professionals as part of a victim-impact statement at sentencing in any criminal case. La.R.S. 46:1844(K). Similarly, because La.C.Cr.P. art. 905.2(A) principally addresses cases in which the victim has died and in which the defendant's moral culpability is measured in terms of human loss, we believe that the economic costs imposed on the victim's family by the offense, such as the expense of psychological therapy, are not relevant to character and propensities of either the offender or of the victim. See Payne, 501 U.S. at 827, 111 S.Ct. at 2609 ([W]e now reject the view ... that a State may not permit the prosecutor to ... argue to the jury the human cost of the crime of which the defendant stands acquitted.). In the absence of express legislative sanction, evidence in that regard is therefore not admissible at a capital sentencing proceeding for aggravated rape, although it may form part of a victim-impact statement delivered before sentencing in a non-capital case. See La.R.S. 46:1844(K). As stated above, the legislature has amended art. 905.2 to expand the scope of permissible witnesses to include friends and associates of the victim. Thus, if the legislature intended to include mental health providers, surely it would have done so when it expanded the list of enumerated persons who are permitted to testify. We must give great deference to the expressions of our legislature and therefore must hold that mental health professionals are precluded from testifying during the penalty phase of a capital case. Accordingly, the judgments of the lower courts excluding testimony from the victims' mental health professionals are affirmed and the case is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein.