Opinion ID: 2343346
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Weeks Sufficiently Alleged Identity was at Issue.

Text: The State also argues that Mr. Weeks cannot meet the statutory requirement of alleging facts demonstrating that identity was in issue at the trial, since he admitted his guilt at the plea hearing. [7] To the extent this argument is merely a restatement of the argument that a guilty plea movant can never show that identity was at issue in the trial, it is rejected for the reasons noted above. It would be absurd to say that the legislature intended to let a person who pleaded guilty file a motion that the person was certain not to win because in pleading guilty the person necessarily admitted his identity as the perpetrator. This Court presumes that the legislature did not intend an absurd result. In re Beyersdorfer, 59 S.W.3d 523, 526 (Mo. banc 2001). If the facts placed the perpetrator's identity at issue, then the mere existence of the guilty plea does not preclude the movant from seeking relief. The statute's requirements are met if the movant demonstrates that up to the time of the plea  as that is as far in the trial process as the case proceeded  identity was at issue. [8] Mr. Weeks met this standard. Before February 13, 1992, Mr. Weeks declined to plead guilty. On February 12, 1992, the prosecution received the laboratory report from SEMO showing that none of the tested items conclusively identified Mr. Weeks as the rapist. Among dozens of items tested, SEMO also tested the cigarette butts located in Room 11. The report stated that Mr. Weeks may be eliminated from the population that smoked those cigarettes. Moreover, the report stated that a comparison of the fingerprints taken from the automobile and the motel room did not match Mr. Weeks' prints. Mr. Weeks has adequately shown that then, as now, identity was at issue. [9]