Court Opinion

ID: 9491252
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:08:17.992771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:36.811017
License: Public Domain

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result the majority has reached but, with respect to Part II, I find necessary and sufficient only the initial paragraph and the conclusion that Dr. Humphrey’s testimony was not erroneously excluded since it was not mitigating:
[W]e have serious questions concerning whether this portion of Dr. Humphrey’s proffered testimony accurately may be characterized as mitigating ... we conclude that the refusal of the state trial court to permit Boyd to present the mitigating testimony of his expert witness, Dr. Humphrey, did not have a substantial or injurious effect on the verdict.
The proffered testimony of Dr. Humphrey was that “prisoners convicted of homicide had suffered over the course of their lives more stressful events than nonviolent offenders” and that “individuals whose victims were close to them tended to have experienced more loss in their lives than those who had killed strangers.” Even if that proffered testimony was mitigating, it was harmless error to exclude it.