Cite as 336 Ark. 490 (1999)
not use the evidence in question." Fowler, 315 Ark. at 650, 869 S.W.2d at 696.
[7] Similarly, in the instant case the circuit judge's ruling allowed the prosecutor to develop Walls's role in the Stocks murders. After the ruling, the door was open, and defense counsel were obliged to protect their client on the issue as best they could. We see no waiver by defense counsel in this regard.
II. Victim Impact
We turn then to whether evidence of Walls's involvement in the Stocks murders was relevant victim-impact evidence. We conclude that it was not. As already stated, the policy reasons for distinguishing jury trials from bench trials is clear. A judge in a bench trial is better able to separate the evidentiary wheat from the chaff in deciding what is relevant in making his or her decision. In this case, the prosecutor argued to the circuit judge at one point that because a jury was not involved, he should allow the grandmother to testify to the Stocks murders. The circuit judge picked up on the same theme and said on two occasions that he could separate the relevant evidence from what was irrelevant and added at one point that he would not include dismissed offenses in his sentence.
What lies at the heart of our decision today is that the circuit judge, by his own words, held Walls responsible for the Stocks murders. The judge said: "I only know that, in the very least, you are indirectly responsible for the deaths of Joe, Barbara and Heather Stocks." This, of course, was the very victim-impact evidence that Walls's counsel attempted to exclude but was thwarted in doing so. Thus, if it was improper and unduly prejudicial for this evidence to be allowed and considered by the circuit judge, Walls's sentence must be reversed.
We focus again on what is proper victim-impact testimony. This, of course, was a sentencing hearing for multiple rapes of young boys to which Walls pled guilty. The offenses described by the boys and their parents were vile and sickening. But multiple murders of the Stocks family were not part of Walls's guilty plea. Walls had been charged with solicitation to commit murder with
