concluding that the State’s expert witness could testify that a child was conscious and crying during beating from defendant based upon his experience and studies
How later courts described this case
- concluding that the State’s expert witness could testify that a child was conscious and crying during beating from defendant based upon his experience and studies
- recognizing defense counsel's duty to investigate mitigating evidence in capital case
- "The class of persons eligible to receive a punishment of death is further narrowed in Oklahoma by the restriction that ... only a unanimous 12 member jury of the defendant's peers can set punishment at death."
Written by the judges who cited it.
Later courts went against this
Overruled in part, on other grounds by Jones v. State, 2006 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 16 (2006)
T97 In Abshier v. State, 2001 OK CR 13, 28 P.3d 579, overruled in part on other grounds, Jones v. State, 2006 OK CR 17, ¶ 12, 134 P.3d 150, 155, n. 14, we rejected a claim similar to the one brought in the instant appeal.
The opinion
STRUBHAR, J.,
CONCURS IN RESULTS:
«[ 1 Based on the doctrine of stare decisis, I concur in the results reached by the Court in this case. I continue to believe that First Degree Murder By Child Abuse is and should be a specific intent crime as I expressed in Fairchild v. State, 1998 OK CR 47 , 965 P.2d 891 , 408 (Lane, J. dissenting joined by Strubhar, V.P.J.), opinion withdrawn and rehearing granted, 1999 OK CR 80 , 992 P.2d 349 , followed by opinion on rehearing, 1999 OK CR 49 , 998 P.2d 611 (Strubhar, P.J. dissenting). I further maintain that a culpability assessment, i.e. a finding of intentional harm, must be made at some point in the process for the death penalty to be constitutionally sound in capital child abuse murder cases even if the defendant is the actual killer. See Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137 , 107 S.Ct. 1676 , 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987); Enmund v. Florida, 458 U.S. 782 , 102 S.Ct. 3368 , 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982). However, I yield to the majority here and agree that Steven Lynn Abshier's death sentence is valid based on the culpability assessment performed by the Court regardless of whether he committed or permitted the child abuse that led to Ashley Nicole Abshier's death.