Court Opinion

ID: 9676925
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:38:25.904232+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:17:05.710249
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
This is an ordinary barroom altercation, where, following the first trial, we reversed for failure to give a self defense instruction. No self defense instruction was given in the second trial. Whether a self defense instruction should or should not have been given on this record, I am unable to see any new or additional evidence that changes the case from a barroom altercation.
Under these circumstances, I cannot impose the death penalty. I would reduce the sentence from death to life imprisonment without parole for fifty years; otherwise, proportionality in Missouri is reduced totally meaningless.
The principal opinion, I fear, becomes the best evidence for proof of a charge of ineffective counsel.