Title: Ginnings v. State
Citation: 506 S.W.2d 422
Docket Number: 57791
State: Missouri
Issuer: Missouri Supreme Court
Date: March 11, 1974

506 S.W.2d 422 (1974)
Homer GINNINGS, Movant-App.,
v.
STATE of Missouri, Respondent.
No. 57791.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.
March 11, 1974.
*423 J. W. Grossenheider, Lebanon, for movant-appellant.
John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Charles B. Blackmar, Sp. Assist. Atty. Gen., St. Louis, for respondent.
DONNELLY, Chief Justice.
Appellant, Homer Ginnings, was convicted of murder in the first degree by a jury in the Circuit Court of Laclede County, Missouri, and his punishment was assessed at life imprisonment. On appeal to this Court, the judgment of conviction was affirmed. State v. Ginnings, 466 S.W.2d 675 (Mo.1971).
Appellant thereafter filed a motion to vacate under Rule 27.26, V.A.M.R., and an evidentiary hearing was held on October 4, 1971. The motion to vacate was denied and an appeal to this Court followed.
The notice of appeal was filed March 3, 1972. This Court does not have jurisdiction of this case under Mo.Const. Art. V, § 3, V.A.M.S. Parks v. State, 492 S.W.2d 746 (Mo. banc 1973). We retain and decide the case, however, under authority of Mo.Const. Art. V, § 10 and Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Davis, 488 S.W.2d 193, 196 (Mo. 1972).
Appellant's first contention on appeal is that:
In our opinion, appellant's first contention is without merit. In Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 522, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776 (1968), the United States Supreme Court held "that a sentence of death cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was chosen by excluding veniremen for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction." The thrust of appellant's contention is "that he was subjected to trial by a jury that was prosecution prone and thereby deprived of a trial by an impartial jury and denied the due process of law to which he is entitled. . . ." This assertion is answered in State v. Haynes, 482 S.W.2d 444, 446-447 (Mo.1972) as follows:
Appellant's second contention on appeal is that:
In our opinion, appellant's second contention is without merit. Appellant was given the right to enter a plea of not guilty and stands convicted by a jury. Appellant's punishment was assessed at life imprisonment and not death. In Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 92 S. Ct. 2726, 33 L. Ed. 2d 346 (1972), the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death sentence may not be imposed under statutes like § 559.030, RSMo 1969, V.A.M.S. Life imprisonment, however, remains a permissible punishment under the statute, and the statute, insofar as it permits life imprisonment, was not affected by the Furman case. In fact, since the holding in Furman, supra, this Court has consistently reduced death sentences to life imprisonment. State v. Granberry, 484 S.W.2d 295, 301 (Mo. banc 1972); State v. Cuckovich, 485 S.W.2d 16, 28 (Mo. banc 1972), and State v. Ford, 495 S.W.2d 408, 418 (Mo. banc 1973).
We hold that the findings and conclusions of the trial court are not erroneous. The judgment is affirmed.
All concur.