Court Opinion

ID: 9773350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:42:51.559249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:16.697822
License: Public Domain

SEILER, Chief Justice,
concurring in part and dubitative in part.
I concur in that portion of the principal opinion which holds the Missouri procedure governing imposition of the death penalty unconstitutional, but further, I am constrained to vote dubitante in relation to that portion of the principal opinion which upholds the validity of the alternative provision. I am unconvinced that legislation may legally spring forth into existence upon the event of a court fulfilling its mandated duty. Additionally, I am not convinced that the alternative provision which requires a minimum incarceration of fifty years as a condition precedent to parole or probation eligibility is neither cruel and unusual punishment nor violative of due process.
Many would regard incarceration for a minimum of fifty years with no glimmer of hope for probation or parole as a fate worse than death.