Christopher C. Goins v. Commonwealth of Virginia

Summary

The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed Christopher C. Goins' capital murder conviction and death sentence, along with his convictions for four counts of first degree murder, two counts of malicious wounding, and seven firearm counts, arising from his shooting of seven members of the Jones family, five of whom died. The court reaffirmed its prior rejections of facial challenges to Virginia's death penalty statutes and held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a bill of particulars and expanded discovery, restricting voir dire, and admitting the crime scene videotape, photographs, the 911 recording, party-admission testimony, and identity evidence. The court held that Code § 19.2-264.4(C)'s disjunctive language permits proof of future dangerousness through the circumstances of the offense without any prior criminal record, that the evidence sufficiently supported the vileness and future dangerousness findings, and that its statutory sentence review disclosed no passion, prejudice, arbitrary factor, or disproportionality.