Opinion ID: 1464908
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the defendant murdered Alfred Pinegar for the purpose of concealing or attempting to conceal the defendant's delivery of methamphetamine, a controlled substance.

Text: A person commits the crime of delivery of a controlled substance when he delivers a controlled substance knowing that the substance is a controlled substance.... While Mr. Middleton is correct that the last-quoted sentence of the instruction should have placed the word knowingly before the words delivers a controlled substance, he was not prejudiced by counsel's failure to object to this instruction. Here, the fact that Mr. Middleton used and sold methamphetamine was conceded in the penalty phase and evidence to this effect was even elicited by defense counsel to support the claim of methamphetamine psychosis. Accordingly, prejudice did not result from omission of the word knowingly and Mr. Middleton's claim is without merit. State v. Roberts, 948 S.W.2d 577, 588 (Mo. banc 1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1056, 118 S.Ct. 711, 139 L.Ed.2d 652 (1998) (When a defendant makes a voluntary judicial admission of fact before a jury, it serves as a substitute for evidence and dispenses with proof of the actual fact and the admission is conclusive on him). [7] 2. Juror Inability to Understand Penalty Phase Instructions. Mr. Middleton also claims that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge the penalty phase instructions by presenting the studies of Dr. Richard Wiener, which purportedly demonstrate that jurors have difficulty understanding Missouri's penalty phase instructions and, as a result, are more likely to recommend death. For the reasons stated in Lyons v. State, 39 S.W.3d at 43-44; State v. Deck, 994 S.W.2d 527, 542-43 (Mo. banc 1999), cert. denied, 528 U.S. 1009, 120 S.Ct. 508, 145 L.Ed.2d 393 (1999); and State v. Jones, 979 S.W.2d 171, 181 (Mo. banc 1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1112, 119 S.Ct. 886, 142 L.Ed.2d 785 (1999), in which nearly identical arguments were raised, this argument is rejected.