State of Tennessee v. Robert Faulkner

Summary

The court affirmed Faulkner's conviction for first-degree premeditated murder and his death sentence. It held that expert testimony about stress, substance abuse, and impaired emotional control was properly excluded because it did not show that a mental disease or defect prevented him from forming the required intent; it also found no reversible error in the jury instructions, verdict form, photographic evidence, or capital-sentencing review. Justice Birch, concurring in part and dissenting in part, agreed that the conviction should be affirmed but would have rejected the death sentence as disproportionate under his proposed proportionality protocol.