Court Opinion

ID: 9671785
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:43:19.47053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:12.052762
License: Public Domain

CROW, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority opinion’s reversal of the conviction, but I respectfully disagree with the conclusion that Defendant must be discharged. I would permit the prosecutor to decide whether to re-try Defendant for voluntary manslaughter.
Under § 565.025.2(2)(a), RSMo 1986, voluntary manslaughter as defined in § 565.023.1(1), RSMo 1986, is a lesser degree offense of murder in the second degree.
A person commits voluntary manslaughter under § 565.023.1(1) if he causes the death of another person under circumstances that would constitute murder in the second degree under § 565.021.1(1), RSMo 1986, except that he “caused the death under the influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause.” I believe the evidence regarding the confrontation between Defendant and the victim at the door is sufficient to support a finding that Defendant shot the victim under the influence of sudden passion arising from adequate cause. See: State v. Fears, 803 S.W.2d 605 (Mo. banc 1991).
I am mindful that the verdict of guilty of involuntary manslaughter constituted an acquittal of murder in the second degree, the crime with which Defendant was charged. State v. Favell, 536 S.W.2d 47, 51[7] (Mo.App.1976). Obviously, Defendant cannot be tried anew for murder in the second degree. However, the jury had no occasion to consider whether Defendant was guilty of voluntary manslaughter because no verdict-directing instruction was given hypothesizing that offense.
Defendant’s conviction is being reversed because of instructional error by the trial court, i.e., the trial court gave a verdict-directing instruction on involuntary manslaughter, which the evidence did not support, when the trial court should have given a verdict-directing instruction on voluntary manslaughter, which the evidence did support. The majority opinion correctly states: “Evidence that a defendant intended the act which caused the death, even if he did not intend the result, supports submission of voluntary, not involuntary, manslaughter.”
Reversal for trial error, as distinguished from evidence insufficiency, does not constitute a decision that the State has failed to prove its case. State v. Mayes, 868 S.W.2d 541, 545 (Mo.App.W.D.1993). I find no authority demonstrating there is any constitutional impediment to trying Defendant for voluntary manslaughter. Therefore, I would give the prosecutor that option.