Court Opinion

ID: 9648263
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:12:01.566806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:57.994492
License: Public Domain

BLACKMAR, Judge,
concurring.
My original impression was that the prosecutor was seriously out of bounds in intimating in his rebuttal argument that the other participants in the crime had given statements which contained information adverse to the defendant. Examination of the transcript persuades me that the claim of retaliation is not wholly without foundation and so, although I do not believe that I would have ruled as the trial judge did, I do not believe that reversal is indicated. I am still concerned about trial judges’ apparent unwillingness to keep prosecutors’ closing arguments in bounds. See State v. Antwine, 743 S.W.2d 51 (Mo. banc 1987) (Blackmar, J., dissenting).
I also believe that the principal opinion unnecessarily holds that a “halfway house” is a place of confinement within the meaning of § 565.032(9), RSMo 1986. The legislature must have thought that the escape of a confined person presented substantial dangers both during the escape and while the escapee is at large. Absent evidentiary description of the nature of confinement in a halfway house and of the restrictions imposed, I am not sure that the same dangers are manifest. The record adequately shows other statutory aggravating circumstances and so the finding of this circumstance is not necessary to the judgment.
In all other respects I concur in the opinion and judgment of affirmance.