People v. Stringham

Stringham (defendant) and others beat and abducted Paul Snipes over an alleged theft, and Stringham handed a gun to a friend who killed Snipes; originally charged with capital murder by torture, Stringham was offered a plea to voluntary manslaughter after the prosecutor concluded two key witnesses (including a detective who had a heart attack) would be unavailable. Snipes's family strongly opposed the plea deal, prompting a new judge to take over; at a January 1987 hearing, Snipes's father read a statement condemning the plea bargain and calling Stringham a murderer, after which the case was ultimately tried rather than resolved by plea, and Stringham was convicted of second-degree murder and kidnapping. Stringham appealed, arguing the father's statement was improperly allowed at a hearing that wasn't yet a formal sentencing proceeding and that its content was unconstitutionally inflammatory.