Court Opinion

ID: 9776260
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:28:55.307885+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:36.427438
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
dissenting.
The principal opinion unnecessarily allows the trial judge to place the indelible brand of felon on a defendant without allowing the defendant appellate review.
I agree that the right of appeal is purely statutory, but there is a firm statutory policy of affording an appeal from a criminal conviction which carries indelible consequences.
The initial thought behind suspension of imposition of sentence (S.I.S.), as authorized by § 557.011(3), RSMo 1978, was that the conviction and ensuing stigma would be eradicated on the successful completion of the period of probation. The logic of State ex rel. Peach v. Tillman, 615 S.W.2d 514 (Mo.App.1981) is that the defendant is not aggrieved by the initial finding of guilty and may never be. By this reasoning it is easy to say that the judgment is not final.
The legislature, however, departed from the pure theory of S.I.S., in imposing the indelible consequences detailed in the principal opinion. There was apparent feeling that drunken drivers and drug merchants were not being adequately punished. The indelible consequences are the hallmark of finality. The logic of State ex rel. Peach v. Tillman, supra, no longer applies, and we should not perpetuate it.
My concern is heightened because the conviction seems to be a very doubtful one. A landlord is found guilty of burglary because one item of property of a delinquent tenant, who had apparently abandoned the premises, was found in his apartment. So far as I can discern, the principal opinion holds that there is no means whatsoever of correcting this apparent wrong.
I suppose that the defendant might reject the S.I.S. and ask for a sentence with suspended execution. But defendants should not have to play Russian Roulette in the pursuit of justice.
Another possibility would be to permit an appeal at the expiration of the period of probation. I assume that, if a defendant receives S.I.S. and then violates the conditions of probation, the ensuing sentence would constitute a final and appealable judgment. The expiration of the probation period would render the conviction, with ensuing consequences, as final as it will ever be. So, at the very least, I would treat the notice of appeal as having been filed at the expiration of the suspension period and would proceed to the merits.
Under either theory I would retransfer the case to the Court of Appeals for consideration of the merits.