Court Opinion

ID: 9674513
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:30:05.504423+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:27.908224
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
concurring.
I am concerned about Point I in the opinion. I accept the narrow holding of the case, which is that there should be no reversal because Warden Armontrout’s testimony about the deterrent effect of capital punishment and the prosecutor’s related arguments were not objected to. It is not now necessary to decide whether the testimony could properly be admitted over objection.
State v. Gilmore, 681 S.W.2d 934 (Mo. banc 1984) does not hold that expert testimony to the effect that capital punishment does not operate as a deterrent is inadmissible. The precise point decided in that case was that the state did not have to provide funds in addition to those regularly allotted the public defender to hire an expert witness who would testify that capital punishment is not a reliable deterrent.
The authors of both opinions have overwritten. From the principal opinion in this case one might gather that the testimony of a corrections official in support of the deterrent effect of capital punishment is admissible, whereas the testimony of one who expressed a contrary opinion was “irrelevant to the issue at hand” and therefore presumably inadmissible. The rules *677should surely be the same for both classes of testimony. If the state is to be allowed to parade corrections officials to hold forth on the supposed deterrent effect the defense should be able to counter this evidence. My tentative preference would be to exclude all of this opinion evidence, which deals with an issue expressly committed to the jury’s discretion, leaving the jury free to perform the function the statutes entrust to it.
I agree with the principal opinion’s holding that there is no prejudice in this case sufficient to withstand the absence of an objection, and therefore concur.