Victim Testimony

Re “Slain Officers’ Parents Tell of Pain,” June 1: The parents of the slain Compton police officers are fortunate in having been allowed to tell the court, in the presence of the jury, how the murder of their sons has broken their hearts wide with grief. The opportunity for the jury to hear “victim-impact” evidence is not simply a matter of being allowed by state law. The right of survivors to testify during the penalty phase of a capital murder case should, emphatically, be protected by statute. It is not. I should know.

I recently sat through the eight-week penalty phase of the trial of Mark Thornton, 20, in Ventura County. He killed Westlake Village nurse and mother Kellie O’Sullivan, 33, in September, 1993. As the penalty phase began in January, 1995, Judge Charles McGrath supported the defense’s objection and denied the prosecutor the opportunity to present victim-impact evidence to the jury. Because victim-impact evidence has been allowed for some time, the capriciousness of Judge McGrath in forbidding it was impossible for the O’Sullivan family and the prosecution team to understand and was received as a shocking blow. The admissibility of victim impact evidence needs to be protected by statute. Currently there exists no such protection.

DEE FLANAGAN RN

Long Beach