State of New Jersey, Plaintiff-Respondent v. Donald Loftin, Defendant-Appellant

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed Donald Loftin's murder conviction and death sentence, holding that the death‑penalty statute does not violate the Eighth Amendment and that the trial court's procedural rulings—including the limited death‑qualification of the guilt‑phase jury, the in‑banc voir dire, the failure to give non‑unanimous instructions, and the exclusion of certain mitigating evidence—were not reversible error. The Court applied a deferential abuse‑of‑discretion standard to the trial court's evidentiary decisions and found any errors harmless. Justice Handler and Justice O'Hern dissented, arguing that the jury instructions and evidentiary exclusions violated constitutional and statutory requirements.