Miss. Code Ann. § 99-19-159

Victim impact statement to be made available to defense and to prosecution; statement as factor in sentencing; cooperation of victim not mandatory

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 49 So. 3d 1073 - Moffett v. State (2010)

Most recently applied in 49 So. 3d 1073 - Moffett v. State (September 2010)

Laws, 1987, ch. 433, § 5, eff from and after July 1, 1987.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) At least forty-eight (48) hours prior to the date of sentencing, the court shall make available copies of the statement to the defendant, defendant’s counsel and the prosecuting attorney. These parties shall return all copies of the statement to the court immediately following the imposition of sentence upon the defendant.

(2) Any victim impact statement submitted to the court under Section 99-19-157 shall be among the factors considered by the court in determining the sentence to be imposed upon the defendant.

(3) Sections 99-19-151 through 99-19-161 shall not be construed to require a victim or victim representative to submit a victim impact statement or to cooperate in the preparation of a victim impact statement.

Current official text: Mississippi Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Mississippi statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.