THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140598
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 28 lines
States can bar criminal defendants from using drunkenness as evidence they did not act deliberately, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The 5-4 ruling reinstates a Montana law and the murder convictions of a man whose blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.36 percent - more than three times the legal limit - after he was found with the bodies of two people who were shot to death.
Nine other states also bar consideration of defendants' intoxication in deciding whether they acted intentionally.
Defendants do not have a constitutional right to have all relevant evidence introduced in court, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the court's main opinion. The Montana law does not violate the right to due process, he added.
Scalia noted that as many as half of all homicides are committed by people who are intoxicated.
He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Four justices dissented, saying the Montana law violated defendants' right to due process.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SUPREME COURT RULINGS by CNB