## Facts

- On March 27, 1991, Feltus Taylor entered Cajun’s Fabulous Fried Chicken in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after being admitted inside by manager Keith Clark early that morning.
- Donna Ponsano was working at the restaurant as a cook.
- Taylor attempted to rob the restaurant and shot both Ponsano and Clark during the robbery or attempted robbery.
- Ponsano later died from her injuries; Clark survived and could identify Taylor as the shooter.
- The State charged Taylor with first-degree murder under Louisiana law, based on an intentional killing committed during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery.
- At trial, Taylor admitted his guilt. The jury found him guilty as charged.
- In the penalty phase, the State presented aggravating-circumstance evidence and some victim-impact testimony concerning Ponsano.
- The jury unanimously recommended a death sentence, and the trial court imposed death.
- On direct appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, Taylor raised 339 assignments of error attacking both the guilt and sentencing phases, including many claims not preserved by contemporaneous objection at trial.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence supported Taylor’s first-degree murder conviction, including proof of an intentional killing during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery.
2. Whether any of Taylor’s preserved guilt-phase assignments of error (and any unpreserved errors warranting review) required reversal of the conviction.
3. Whether any penalty-phase errors—particularly the admission and use of victim-impact testimony—so prejudiced the sentencing determination that the death sentence had to be set aside.
4. Whether the statutory aggravating circumstance(s) supporting death were proved and whether the death sentence was excessive or disproportionate under Louisiana’s mandatory capital-sentence review.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed Taylor’s first-degree murder conviction.
- The court found no reversible error in the guilt phase after reviewing the assignments that were properly preserved and reviewable.
- The court rejected Taylor’s challenges to the penalty phase, including claims directed at victim-impact testimony, concluding that the complained-of evidence did not require reversal in the context of the full penalty-phase record.
- The court concluded the record supported the statutory basis for a capital sentence and, after mandatory review, held the death sentence was not excessive or disproportionate.
- Disposition: conviction and sentence affirmed.

## Legal Principles

- A first-degree murder conviction is supported when the record permits a rational juror to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant intentionally killed the victim during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an armed robbery.
- Appellate review in Louisiana generally requires a contemporaneous trial objection; claims not properly preserved may be rejected on that basis unless they present a basis for limited review under recognized exceptions.
- Victim-impact evidence is not automatically barred in capital sentencing; reversal turns on whether the victim-impact presentation was so inflammatory or prejudicial, in context, that it rendered the sentencing proceeding fundamentally unfair.
- In capital cases, the Louisiana Supreme Court independently reviews whether at least one statutory aggravating circumstance is supported by the evidence and whether the death sentence is excessive or disproportionate in light of comparable cases and the circumstances of the offense and offender.
- Even when error is identified, relief requires a showing of prejudice; multiple asserted errors do not warrant reversal where the reviewing court finds no prejudicial effect sufficient to undermine the reliability of the verdict or sentence.

## Conclusion

In State v. Taylor, the Louisiana Supreme Court affirmed Feltus Taylor’s first-degree murder conviction and death sentence for the fatal shooting of Donna Ponsano during a restaurant robbery or attempted robbery, holding that the record supported the conviction and aggravating circumstance(s), that none of Taylor’s many assignments of error—including challenges to limited victim-impact testimony—required reversal, and that the death sentence was not excessive under mandatory review.


State v. Taylor, 669 So. 2d 364 (1996)