Court rejects death-row inmates' video challenge
Tue, Nov 11, 2008

WASHINGTON - The US Supreme Court yesterday turned aside challenges by death-row inmates to the use of emotional videos of the murder victim's life in an effort to convince the jury to impose a death sentence.

Over the protests of three justices, the high court declined to hear appeals by two California inmates who argued the videotapes violated their constitutional right to a fair trial.

In one case, Douglas Kelly was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of 19-year-old Sara Weir. Prosecutors played for the jury a 20-minute video with photographs and video narrated by her mother and music in the background.

The California Supreme Court upheld the admissibility of both videos and rejected the argument that they were too emotional.

Liberal Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer took exception to the court's decision in the California cases, but they fell one vote short of what is needed for the Supreme Court to hear a case. - (Reuters)




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