State v. Benson
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of first degree murder and eight other felonies. For his crimes, Defendant was sentenced to death and prison terms. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions and sentences, holding (1) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in its pretrial rulings; (2) the trial court did not err in instructing the jury during the aggravation phase; (3) the prosecutor did not misstate the law in his closing argument; (4) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to inform the jury of Defendant's willingness to waive parole eligibility; (5) the trial court did not abuse its discretion in excluding victim impact evidence; (5) the jury's finding that three aggravating circumstances applied was supported by the evidence with respect to each murder; and (6) the jury did not abuse its discretion in imposing the death penalty for each murder.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.