Unreliable and prejudicial: the use of extraneous unadjudicated offenses in the penalty phases of capital trials.

A uniform ban on the admission of prior bad acts evidence in the penalty phase of capital trials is necessary to protect defendants against being unfairly convicted based on alleged, but unproved, crimes. Such a ban would remedy conflicting evidentiary standards enunciated by the US Supreme Court, which has sanctioned the admission of all relevant evidence to prove aggravating circumstances but has also prohibited the presentation of unduly prejudicial or unreliable evidence. It would also resolve the disparate standards that have developed amongst the federal circuits and state courts.