Court Opinion

ID: 9679660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:01:57.019891+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:17.833872
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
concurring.
I concur, except as to the discussion in Part IX about the “torture or depravity” aggravating circumstance, § 565.032.2(7). Under our repeated holdings, any error regarding this circumstance would not be ground for reversal, because the record adequately supports the other (prior conviction of murder and lawful custody) aggravating circumstances submitted. State v. Mercer, 618 S.W.2d 1 (Mo. banc 1981).
I had thought that Godfrey v. Georgia, 446 U.S. 420, 100 S.Ct. 1759, 64 L.Ed.2d 398 (1980), had been virtually ignored by the Supreme Court, especially after it denied review of our decision in State v. Preston, 673 S.W.2d 1 (Mo. banc 1984), but Maynard v. Cartwright, — U.S. -, 108 S.Ct. 1853, 100 L.Ed.2d 372 (1988), shows that this is not so. Under that case, I doubt very much that a finding based on “depravity of. mind,” without “torture,” would suffice to authorize a death sentence. I also doubt whether the circumstances detailed in Preston, 673 S.W.2d at 11, would suffice, unless torture is shown. When “torture” and “depravity of mind” are submitted disjunctively, by our longstanding instructional learning, both alternatives must be legally supported. State v. Mercer, 618 S.W.2d 1 (Mo. banc 1981) (Seiler, J., dissenting). Prosecutors and trial judges would be wise to avoid instructing on 565.032.2(7), unless a finding of torture is explicitly required.
*503I concur in all other portions of the opinion and in the judgment.