Victim Impact Evidence: People in Payne (Case Study‪)‬

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 1976, the United States Supreme Court reasserted the constitutionality of capital punishment with its decision in Gregg v. Georgia. In doing so, the Court cautioned that juries must have "as much information as possible" for consideration when making such a grave sentencing decision. One year later the Court emphasized the importance of every sentencing decision being based on "reason rather than emotion" (Gardner v. Florida, 1977). That is, to ensure justice (for the defendant and for society) jurors are explicitly instructed not to let emotion influence their consideration of the facts and circumstances in evidence. A juror's obligation to make a non-arbitrary, unemotional, and unbiased decision is nowhere as great as in a capital case. And under no circumstance is the fine line between reason and emotion more difficult to hold than when considering "victim Impact (VI) evidence.