The United States Supreme Court overturned the death penalty judgment Tuesday of an Oklahoma man convicted of a 2010 triple murder. Justices ruled the victim impact statement where family of the deceased said the death sentence was appropriate should not have been admitted.
Shaun Bosse was convicted in 2012 of three first-degree murder charges in the killings of his girlfriend and her two children.
During the sentencing period of the trial, prosecutors asked what the victims’ family thought was a proper sentence. All three relatives recommended death. Bosse appealed the decision, saying the testimony violated the Eighth Amendment, based on a 1987 court case Booth v. Maryland.
But the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reaffirmed the death sentence, saying the U.S Supreme Court overruled the finding in a 1991 case. The Bosse case was then elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court reversed the opinion of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and sent back the case for further proceedings.
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