Court Opinion

ID: 9664864
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:32:02.223419+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:10.884126
License: Public Domain

ROBERTSON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately because, in my view, MAI-CR 2d 13.49 and Section 565.030.4(4) are at odds with each other. Far from being erroneous, the trial judge’s instructions in the penalty phase are compelled by the language of the statute.
The language omitted from MAI-CR 2d 13.49 told the jury “[i]t is your duty, and yours alone” to assess punishment. Section 565.030.4(4) requires that the jury be instructed prior to the submission of the case, “that if it is unable to decide or agree upon the punishment[,] the court shall assess and declare the punishment at life imprisonment ... or death.” Instruction 20 so stated.
MAI-CR 2d 13.49 was adopted prior to the amendments to Section 565.030.4(4). Section 565.030.4(4) now requires that the jury be told that the trial judge will assess punishment if the jury cannot. The duty to assess punishment is no longer the jury’s alone. The jury bears the primary responsibility to assess punishment. The trial court’s shares that obligation on a contingent basis. To the extent that MAI-CR 2d 13.49 tells the jury that it bear the punishment burden alone, the instruction is inaccurate. The trial court cannot be convicted of error for omitting a paragraph from an instruction which is contrary to Section 565.030.4(4).